Hi All!

I am a relatively new (6 years self-taught) web designer, and recently my business has really taken off. Not a slew of money or big jobs yet, but the work is steady! I am beside myself with happiness! I received a great call yesterday from a gentleman who works for a city small business administrative office who wanted to invite my company to bid on a big job they have coming up for a web site. I have heard there is a process in how this all works, and my bookeeper has mentioned "Estimates, Quotes and Bids" (maybe not in that order???) and I have heard other designers using the same terms, yet I am completely in the dark about this process. Basically the way it is now, and I know I am not making as much money as I should doing it this way, is that I estimate the amount of hours I am going to spend on a project, multiply that by my hourly rate, then send that, in writing to my client. I tell them any work after that is a flat hourly rate. If they accept it, off I go on my merry way. For all I know I am doing nothing wrong, but there's a process that I know I should be plugging in here and wanted to ask around these forums before I put my nose to the Google grindstone to research it that way. Has anyone recently needed to learn how to do this, or is there someone here that can point me in the right direction?

Thanks a gazzillion and ciao baby...

Billy in Vermont US

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