Quoting time to completion

Bob Bair · Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007, 19:26 (GMT) Post subject: Quoting time to completion

I haven't done any really large projects up to now, so I'm curious about how everyone quotes on some of the larger projects. Of course it depends on how much production is involved along with other things but do you quote "yadda yadda days" to complete xx:00 hours of finished dry audio (for example) or do you quote it on how many days for so many pages/words?

My question on the hours finished audio would be, can you trust the client to know how many hours it will be?

Any guidelines that could help me here? Thanks!

Connie Terwilliger · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007, 04:12 (GMT) Post subject:

Ask for a word count. You can figure it out from there.

Erik Sheppard · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007, 04:33 (GMT) Post subject:

I have a regular client, who I was dealing with today, who always make sure we agree on the number of hours I will charge after he delivers the script and before I start recording. Normally this would be annoying, as are all per-hour worked jobs in my opinion, but we always come to a great agreement and everyone is happy.

That is a rarity. If at all possible, look at the script, get an idea of what it is worth to you, and realistically how long you think it will take you and negotiate a price for the finished product including reasonable revisions.

Bob Bair · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007, 13:40 (GMT) Post subject:

Kathleen Keesling

Bob Bair · Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007, 06:10 (GMT) Post subject:

Update:

They picked me for the gig. Wow am I going to be a busy boy!

Kathleen Keesling · Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007, 13:28 (GMT) Post subject:

Congratulations, Bob!

WOW
respekt

Maxine Dunn · Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007, 16:48 (GMT) Post subject:

Bob Bair · Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007, 21:16 (GMT) Post subject:

I ended up going with a per word estimate. The example file they sent me was actually a bit longer than the average, so I figured if I could use that one as the example I'd come up with a slightly higher number yet still below some other forms of calculation. I was trying to be fair. That might bite me but I have to dive into one of these big projects some day. I'll never know how to determine the quote more accurately next time if I don't try something this time.

Thanks so much. It was a surprise considering I was in a rush when I did the audition. I wasn't really happy with how it sounded. See how little I know?

Doug Parks · Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007, 16:55 (GMT) Post subject:

Bob,

You must be ecstatic over this gig. Congratulations, and I hope you get many returns out of it!

Wendi Russo

HI ! So I see you have a huge job and are charging per word...my husband just booked an Italian teaching audio lesson and it's 250 words per page...10 pages...the original quote was $20 a page but now the client is asking how much per audio minute and per word but if he was to quote that ...it will probably come out to more...the client is asking this hoping that one of the other quotes will be less than $20/page...right? I just wonder why not come up with an amount for the total job? Any thoughts? Thank you!

Robert Jadah · Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007, 05:07 (GMT) Post subject:

That was a very, very kind quote on the original price, Wendi.
250 words per page is a minute and a half per page, so call it fifteen minutes of finished audio.
Multiply it out by four for re-takes and editing and pronounciation research and whatnot, and we get to at least an hour's work.

They'll probably be making money on the lessons for years to come, and your hubby's going to settle for a one-time $200 for fairly specialized VO?

Let them go elsewhere. Clients like that are invariably not worth the bother.

Voice On!

Wendi Russo · Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007, 06:02 (GMT) Post subject: Thank you!

Yes! My thoughts exactly...I thought he should get a specified dollar amount for the project. I gave him my number to call me and he's in India...so we'll see...he could be just fishing around! It's also chock full of technical jargon cause it's explaining Windows Vista in Italian! Thank you for your thoughts!

Bob Bair · Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007, 16:55 (GMT) Post subject:

In my case their estimate for the completed audio was way off, that's why I did words. I prefer a "per page" rate.

$20.00 per page is pretty low. That's about a third of what can be considered the bottom end rate per page.

Scott Pollak · Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007, 17:02 (GMT) Post subject:

Congrats on the gig, Bob.

For those out there struggling with this issue on quotes for large jobs, there are a couple of avenues that I've used that have worked well for me. One is for when you have a pretty firm word count and is a sliding scale. For example, 0-2000 words at XX/word (usually around .30-.40/word), then, say from 2001-4000 words perhaps .25/word and so on until you hit, say, 10,000+ words at a minimum of about .10/word. Obviously the pricing you use is up to you and you normally have to have some flexibility, AND it depends on the client.

I do a lot of e-learning and I quote an hourly rate. Typically I'll quote around $800 for a finished hour of recorded audio, with a one-hour minimum and then after that billing in 10 minute increments. The way I track it is to keep an Excel file with each audio segment logged and the total running time in minutes and seconds. Then, on very long, ongoing projects, as the time adds up and I accumulate an hour or two of running, recorded, finished audio, I'll shoot out an invoice, ALONG WITH the Excel sheet showing the documentation. I've never, ever had a problem with any client by doing this and they seem to appreciate the attention to detail in the documenting of the audio segments.