I guess if you're just starting, that's decent money, but I don't think I could run with the same idea myself. I'd probably need to add a 1 to the front of your number.
To be honest, I said 3 weeks just to be safe (the old rule of doubling what you think you need). The plan was also to work on multiple projects in parallel.
You're right though, I am just starting off, and already feel a bit guilty asking for anything north of $5k.
Don't feel guilty. If you're price is too high you simply won't get leads. Better 3 high-paying customers than 10 low-paying customers: less support time.
I think your logic is faulty here. There are two reasons to charge more than your inner "imposter syndrome" will let you:
- avoid the arseholes: at 1cent to 50bucks any idiot will spring for the idea and make your life miserable. At 2345, you should be out if their price.
- to fund your own tenure. We work at 19 bucks an hour because the employer just needs our body at a certain location. Not our brain or our lifelong learning.
But you need to use those things. Fund them.
Maybe I have too much fun in my jobby job, but it would be tough to pull off entry-level dev pay (50k-ish in the US Midwest) at this level and probably not as fun as some regular jobs with minimal skin in the game.
Plus (again if US) you'll pay more taxes if self-employed.
If you lived near me, I'd seriously consider hiring you. And you'd get to play in python with lasers and robots (sometimes). And have a guaranteed revenue stream.
Working on multiple projects at once on tight deadlines is a great way erode the quality of the development you produce for your clients. I would think with such short deadlines you'd want to give your clients the courtesy of focusing on them individually and then stagger development of your future projects accordingly.
You are doing the wrong calculation. He isn't claiming to spend 40 hours a week on the prototype. This could be done in spare time, taking advantage of time that is probably netting $0/hr, and in many cases probably can be done in less than 120 hours (especially if he locked down the technology stack)
I agree with the others. My initial assumption at this amount is that it wasn't 120 hours of work. It could be only 30-40 hours of work to get some basic python program going. He can control the features during the negotiation phase.
$2,345 / (40 * 3) = $19.5416666667/hr
I guess if you're just starting, that's decent money, but I don't think I could run with the same idea myself. I'd probably need to add a 1 to the front of your number.