Ask HN: Should I give honest cost estimates?
I'm a freelance developer and I have to estimate cost in order to obtain new clients. Should I give an honest estimate, or should I lowball it?
Seriously though, you want to give an honest estimate. What helps at the sales stage is providing _context_ for the estimate. In other words, don't just quote a figure, break the job down into a project plan with time/cost estimates for each section.
When I was consulting and going after large, somewhat ill-defined projects, I found it was often possible to sell the client on a short (1 to 2 week) engagement to look into their problem, drill down on the unknown bits and make them known, and deliver them a project plan and a set of time/cost estimates that they could then use to better solicit bids. Yes, we usually got the development work on those gigs, but it was a separate project.
Make sure to account / factor in for equipment, taxes, family, rent, etc in your cost estimates, as they say estimation in software is hard.
If you lowball, IMHO you're not being honest with yourself and you may not be motivated to do the job. It is also hard to negotiate higher if you keep lowballing estimates with your clients in the long run.
Presenting a client with a bill that comes in less than what you estimated is pure win for everyone.
If you can, avoid working with people who balk at discussing budget, scope, timeline, and contingencies. It is at best a sign of inexperience.
But in the end, the three most important things are:
1. Get the job.
2. Get the job.
3. Get the job.
It's one thing to quote a low fixed price and take the risk yourself but boy do you need some mechanism to prevent the customer from making too many changes.