I'd like to know what tips you Forum-ites might have on how to quote for projects - here's my dilemma...

I'm relatively new to owning/running my own business and am still learning (lots and lots and lots). If you don't know what I do, check out my post in the "Meet & Greet" section, or my website.

It would seem to me that quoting on a project is an extreme art where you pit your experience and skills against the risk of losing a lot of money (btw I classify profit below a certain level as loosing money).

There are a lot of issues when trying to quote on a project. Basically we have the know things and a LOT of unknown things. The unknown items decrease with experience, but are still there. So how can one go about quoting and reduce the risk of losing money, but still quote a sellable price.

For example...

I need to quote for a project where I have little knowledge and experience of the product. The skills that I have should place me in a good position to do the work, but there are a lot of unknowns such as,

  • What I need to learn (partially known)
  • How long certain things will take (always an unknown, as snags are bound to happen)
  • Cost of hardware (not known until design is done, won't do design until work is secured...grrrr...vicious circle)
  • Cost of tools (difficult to gauge what tools may be required)
  • Implicit value of solution (this has to do with how the client wants to handle IP on completion)


There are other things, but I think that makes it clear(-ish)? Let me know if I should try to explain better...