[consulting] Drupal web design as hobby - shall I start consulting?

[Joop Laan]

On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 15:26, Alexei Malinovski <alexei at malinovski.org>wrote:

>
> 2010/8/18 Sam Plett <sam.plett at gmail.com>
>
> What you are suggesting is exactly how I do it.  I just tell them that they
>> can go ahead and purchase the hosting themselves if they want (I prefer this
>> actually because then they get billed directly and I don't have to send an
>> invoice every year) but many people don't do this as they don't know how to
>> do it.  The way I cover it is by saying that I am just facilitating the
>> purchase for them but that I am in no way responsible for the hosting
>> itself.
>>
>>
> Glad to hear that I'not alone with such ideas :)
>
>
>> You talk about charging $X/hour to fix hosting problems.  I can't say I
>> have ever come across this because the hosting is not my responsibility but
>> you could definitely include this in your contract.
>>
>
> for example Customer wants to add more e-mail addresses and to make a
> backup at some point. He/she will request me to configure hosting account
> and I will charge the hours spent doing this.
>

For our customers there is a fixed price per month/year for hosting. For
additional service and support we offer pre-paid service packages. They buy
X hours of service for a year. We charge at least an half an hour per
service request. This will limit the amount of requests, as clients wait
until they have a few jobs lined up. And it also enables us to know in
advance how many service hours we have to plan/man.


Joop





>
>
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 6:36 AM, Alexei Malinovski <alexei at malinovski.org
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> 2010/8/14 Sami Khan <sami at etopian.net>
>>>
>>>>  >
>>>> > Q3: Site maintenance
>>>> >
>>>> > What are the components of site maintenance(hosting&support)? At least
>>>> I
>>>> > see
>>>> > following
>>>> > - End user training how to use CMS
>>>> >
>>>> > - Hosting cost
>>>> > - Regular drupal and modules upgrade
>>>> > - End user support if they have questions or messed up something
>>>> > - Doing regular site backup (automatically)
>>>> > - Recovering site from hacker attacks/spam etc
>>>>
>>>> Most of this work is not very profitable, avoid if possible... If you
>>>> have
>>>> to do it, make sure it's in the contract.
>>>>
>>>
>>> So we have here:
>>> - I expect Customers to require hosting to be included since they are non
>>> technical people.
>>> - I do not want to mess with hosting being responsible for uptime etc.
>>> since it is not profitable for me.
>>>
>>> What about following idea. I offer to Customer to create hosting account
>>> for them and pay for it while they cover the cost. At the same time they
>>> should agree  that I'm not responsible for up time, possible hosting errors
>>> etc. In case they have such problems I will fix them for a price X
>>> Euro/Hour.
>>>
>>> Advantages:
>>> 1. Customer doesn't need to mess up with hosting company
>>> 2. This might bring me some work later on when Customer needs to do
>>> something with site.
>>> 3. I'm not responsible if hosting is down.
>>>
>>> Disadvantages:
>>> 1. If hosting is down Customer will immediately contact me to solve it.
>>> So, I play role of a middle man here transferring messages
>>> Customer<->Hosting back and forth. But what if I'm not available?
>>>
>>> Has anyone tried this approach?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/consulting
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Sam
>>
>> www.twitter.com/samplett
>> www.samplett.com
>>
>>
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>>
>
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