Sterling Rose Design Blog

I get asked this question a lot: How do you write a proposal for a freelance contract development job?

First, it’s important to understand that freelancing is a different animal from working for a larger development firm (or, as I lovingly think of them, a Dev-in-a-Box). We have some considerations as independents that they don’t, and vice versa, so I don’t presume to know how best to bid jobs if you’re the Thoughtbots or Hashrockets of the world.

But if you’re an independent developer, then these tips may be useful for you.

1) Never, ever, ever bid flat-rate. Nobody is that good at estimating the time it takes to develop an application, and you will almost surely be wildly over or wildly under the amount of hours it takes you. Also, the client who knows you aren’t going over $X will tack on as many new features to the spec as you will allow them to, since they know it can’t cost them any more. Someone ...