I tried coming up with different forumlas for calculating fees. By the page, by the product, by the image and finnally what I have settled on by the hour. I do all project work based on an hourly rate plus expenses. honestly every other way of caluclating fees seems to be arbitrary where time spent is very easily tracked.

As a rule I do not do work for family. I guess its more like guidlines becuase I have done some jobs for friends and family and honestly I regret ever single one.

If you build a commercial site for someone and you invest your time and effort like you would for any customer, you have to charge your rate. ask yourself this, If you were not working on your friend / relatives website, would you be working on a customers website? If the answer is yes then you need to charge your normal fees.

Its bad business not to get your rate for work you complete. Its a lesson that you learn and as you start paying staff to work by the hour you will begin to see that they are focused on profitable work. It would upset you if staff was working on their friends website while you were paying them.

Hence the rule. Dont work for family and if they insist that you work for them charge them your full rate.

Call me mean, but also call me profitable.

Brian