We have been doing software consultancy for ages and project quotation requests are received everyday. However, the following enquiry conversation keeps happening again and again.

Life as a consultant

These are the two most common enquiry emails we got:

how much does it cost to build a website ?

how much does it cost to build an apps ?

I think noone on earth would be able to answer that ... so, we can just keep asking for information

it depends ...

what kind of apps / website you want to build ?

any references ?

let say ... I want to build something similar to Whatsapp

?? sure ??

Whatsapp is a huge thingy. They have dozens of developers and spent few years to reach the current stage.

So, you guys cannot do it ?

What the ...

Of course we can, just need time and resources.

and I am not sure if that's what you actually want.

Could you tell us more about your product ?

do you have any idea what the MVP looks like ?

then we can give you a better estimation ?

We cannot tell you before you sign the NDA

Just give me a ballpark is fine

after we refuse to give estimation several times and client still ask for a ballpark before moving on

1 to 2 millions for the basic design, core apps flow and minimal backend system

Wow ... you guys are expensive !

Your day rate is even higher than Oursky !

usually we can only reply a :smile and politely ask them to find other vendors.

I appreciate your effort and you guys seems like capable.

many friends spoke highly about you guys.

However, you have to understand we are just a startup.

Hey, we are looking for long term partnership.

There are lots of potential projects we can work on together.

We will raise fund in a year.

If we work well together, we can possibly acquire your whole team.

Possible to lower the day rate for initial phases ?

reply a :smile again

How do we quote a project

okay, after all, it was just my rant. The real topic I want to talk about is the quotation process in F5 which you can find here: Software Quotation Process.