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.
