[consulting] Costs of forking

[Jason Flatt]

On Thursday 09 February 2006 09:35 am, Javier Linares wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 08, 2006 at 11:21:07PM -0800, Boris Mann wrote:
> > I just don't get it....structure your contracts so you include this as
> > part of your pricing, but make it invisible to the customer. ie. -- your
> > internal estimate is 50 hours for a module, add 20% for patch/community
> > interaction time, and show external estimate of 60 hours.
> > You *could* make it very transparent as Zack has suggested, but I suspect
> > that this would increase the sales cycle and lead down the road of lots
> > more questions.
>
> I agree Boris. I suppose most of us charge our customers things they assume
> they're paying but they don't want to know. :) Creating and sending the
> invoice, time to go and pay taxes or the hardware you change every few
> years.
>
> I think contributing back to the comunity is similar to R+D. It is
> something all customers want you to do, and do well, but no one wants to
> pay that or know they're paying that.
>
> Same applies to the time you need to learn PHP or to learn how Drupal makes
> one thing or another. Sooner or later, I think when you sell solutions
> based on Drupal that go behind a standard site with a contact form, you
> need time to learn more about Drupal.

Do you people factor these sorts of things into your charges, and how so?  Is 
it a flat +x%, or a flat +$y, or is there some sort of calculation made based 
on the project, i.e.: "I think I'll spend .5 hr filling out tax paperwork, so 
I'll add $z..."?  I would think just adding a flat, say 5%, to whatever was 
decided was the price to charge would be the best, least thought processing 
way to go.

-- 
Jason Flatt
http://www.oadae.net/
Father of Six:  http://www.flattfamily.com/ (Joseph, 13; Cramer, 11; Travis, 
9; Angela; Harry, 5; and William, 12:04 am, 12-29-2005)
Linux User:     http://www.sourcemage.org/
Drupal Fanatic: http://drupal.org/