How much to charge!

[Guest]

HI guys,

 

I was wondering for those of you who do OS for other people how much do you charge.

 

I have been asked by loads of people if I could build them an e-commerce store, so I have done this for a few but I was wondering how much do you guys charge?

 

Typically its for hosting, install, design header, new buttons, new headers, tweaks, adding mods etc after sales service and search engine reporting, submission, credit card or other payment service, modifications with contributions etc!

 

Also do I have to tell them Im thinking of using OS? Its a bit naughty :oops: I know but im afraid, they will think great, then go get someone else to do it introduce them to it and they rip them off and I loose a prospective customer!

 

So what would you guys charge you can break it down if you like, thanks in anticipation!

[Guest]

I guess its always fair to tell people that you are using osCommerce for the following reasons:

 

1. You owe it to oscommerce team, if you can't even give away the credits, you have no right to use it for free.

 

2. You save yourself from hassles ... if you tell them you are using oscommerce, your customer is assured of continued support from the community even if you stop dealing with that customer. I mean, people will feel cagey of a product if you are the only one they have to depend upon for upgrades and mods.

 

3. When you represent a product that is backed by such a solid community, the customers should not only appreciate your fairness, but also trust you more with their money.

 

Just my 3c.

 

Sunny.

[wasson65]

I have two clients that I'm setting up stores for right now.

 

First, don't underestimate the time you're talking for setting up a site. Make sure that any features that they need really are working first. Example: One client needed fedex. I checked it out, and it sure looked like fedex was there. Well, it wasn't, and I ended up writing a fedex module. Not a huge deal, but it does take time. To get the stock, most basic OSC in place is very quick. To make a customized store that integrates with the rest of their site, is going to take some time on your part. Handling the list of "Can you take this off? I need one more page like "shipping". It's too busy, can you simplify it?" will take some doing.

 

There's no need to be ashamed of or try to hide OSC from your customers. If they understand that they are paying you to make it just the way they want it, and it's free to start with, that means three things to them:

 

1. Your service is more valuable because it's being directed at making their site theirs, not making a codebase.

2. They have more to spend on you because they're not spending it on software!

3. Anything they want, they can get, maybe for free, maybe cheap, maybe not so cheap. Not so with commercial software!

 

If they start wanting to shop it around, tell them fine, there's alot of people who can get OSC running. But the bunch who can make the site what they want it to be is much smaller.

 

If you intend to do much with mods, you will need to have some knowledge of php to do it effectively. Or you can probably hire someone who's on the forum to handle any parts of it you don't want to muck with.

 

Just my two cents....

Tim

[rossdev]

I'm in the middle of a custom site right now. In fact were are 13 days past launch. Even though were late it's been a great experience. I thought I knew PHP/MySQL but working with this cart has been very humbling! I have learned more the last couple of weeks modifying osC then I have this last year. I have had to modify the UPS module, create a new Bank of America module and now I'm in the process of redoing the way osC uses products attributes to make them SKU based with inventory control. I bided this job out at 160 hours and I would say we are around 200+ now. That might not seem like a lot but when it's your own time it means $$.

 

Brian.

[blueline]

Brian,

 

How much are you charging to do a job like that....if you don't mind me asking?

 

-Chris

[rossdev]

We under bided it for $2400 (US). They are a repeat customers so we give them a break on cost (this time) :wink: .

 

Brian.

[rossdev]

Sneak a peek .. but be nice cause it is live (credit card) :!:

http://outdooremporium.net/index.php?show=me

 

Brian.

[wasson65]

Quite nice, easy on the eyes, not too busy. I like it.

[Tina]

We under bided it for $2400 (US). They are a repeat customers so we give them a break on cost (this time) :wink: .

 

Brian.

 

Holy cow!!! I am working on my first osc cart (without a lick of php) and I told my client $250!!!! Guess this is just a learning experience more than anything else. :)

 

 

 

By the way, your site is nice :)

Did you contribute your UPS mod? I tried the one in the contributions, but no luck. Wondering if yours will work for me.

 

Thanks,

Tina

[rossdev]

Did you contribute your UPS mod?  I tried the one in the contributions, but no luck.  Wondering if yours will work for me.

I used this one:

http://www.oscommerce.com/downloads.php/co...ions,738/type,2

 

let me double check, I can't remember what I tweaked. But this is the current mod Im using. :)

 

Brian.

[rossdev]

:oops: guess this version wasn't so tweaked!

in ups.php I cleaned up this code around line 83

  if ($type=='3DS') {

   if ($tds_rcd) {

     $type='3DSCOM'; 

   } else {

     $tds_rcd=true;

     $type='3DSRES';

   }

 }

If my memory serves me correctly it was the original version that I tweaked. This version works great (for me) :wink:

 

Brian..

[Guest]

Brian,

Did you end up contributing your "products attributes to make them SKU based with inventory control" mod to the Contributions? I have been trying to get this to work for my own site for quite some time with no luck at all.

 

Have you got it working?

 

Thanks

Craig

[rossdev]

Brian,

Did you end up contributing your "products attributes to make them SKU based with inventory control" mod to the Contributions? I have been trying to get this to work for my own site for quite some time with no luck at all.

 

Have you got it working?

 

Thanks

Craig

working on it right now.. :D

 

Brian..

[Guest]

Brian,

 

Any idea how long til completion of it?

 

Could you email me at [email protected] when you have it finished. Id love to take a look at it.

 

Will it be a "Contribution"??

 

Thanks

Craig

[rossdev]

I hope to get it done today. We really need to launch our site so we can salvage some of the holiday shopping. I am going to try to make it a contribution, but I can't guarantee anything.

 

Brian.

[Guest]

Brian,

 

Did you end up sending your site live today? Let me see it.

 

How did you go with completing your attributes section?

 

Thanks

Craig

[rossdev]

We are still working on the site but I have successfully implemented the new sku based inventory control. We are planning on launching this week and hopefully we can get a quick beta test going before that happens. I want to make it a contribution but I need some time to reorganize the code to make it osC friendly. In fact I have a lot of hacks I would like to share. So please be patient. I will start working on the contributions in the new year.

 

Brian.