I've been in the business now for about two years.

Recently, a big increase in my SEO has caused me to get pretty busy, and I have, frankly, a LOT of work.

So now I'm faced with questions I've never had to deal with before. What's a reasonable turnaround time for a website? What are some ways to increase my productivity? In this economy, dare I turn work down when I have too much? I don't charge enough to outsource anything, so that's a no-go.

What have you done when running into this issue?

i would recommend just working harder and don't turn down any clients, just tell them to wait a bit longer.

i wish i had this issue. but im the exact opposite, i have no clients.

Originally Posted by fresh-d

i would recommend just working harder and don't turn down any clients, just tell them to wait a bit longer.

i wish i had this issue. but im the exact opposite, i have no clients.

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, the working hard part I have down. It's my only real choice. That, and a lot of midnight oil.

As for your customer base, do you advertise at all?

Originally Posted by OrlWebDesign

I've been in the business now for about two years.

Recently, a big increase in my SEO has caused me to get pretty busy, and I have, frankly, a LOT of work.

So now I'm faced with questions I've never had to deal with before. What's a reasonable turnaround time for a website? What are some ways to increase my productivity? In this economy, dare I turn work down when I have too much? I don't charge enough to outsource anything, so that's a no-go.

What have you done when running into this issue?

I envy you for the much work you're getting. Accept work, don't turn down any work coming in, its a blessing.

If you've got too much work to handle, from what I've read, you should:

· be bold and raise your price a little (monitoring what effect that has on your business)
· use the opportunity to turn down pain-in-the-*ss or risky clients.

Looking at your sites, I'd of thought turn-around should be about 2 weeks max, and so price would be $1000-$1500? It would be interesting to know what you're actual turn-around is and how much you're getting paid. PM me if you don't mind sharing that info.

If you want the clients money then just work faster, that's really the only thing you can do other then turn jobs down.

Try to find a linear correlation between x amount of increment increases in pricing and the decrease of clients based on your average and the linear correlation you've created. Use that to optimize whatever you'd like.

Revenue = Price x # of clients

let x = number of incremental increases. I'll be assuming that you average 100 clients/year, charge $200 per client, want to incrementally increase by $10.00, and that 1 customer leaves for every increase.

let R = Revenue

R = (200 + 10x)(100-x)
R = 1000x -10x^2 + 20000 - 200x
R= -10x^2 + 800x - 20000
R'= -20x + 800
0 = -20x + 800
20x = 800
x = 800/20
x = 40

This is our optimized value for the x variable, which I mentioned represents # of $10.00 incremental increases.

So, in my example we had:

Revenue = Price x # of clients
R = (200 + 10x)(100-x)

If we don't add any incremental increases (no optimaztion) we get:

R = (200 + 10(0))(100-(0))
R = (200)(100)
R = $20 000

Now let's use our optimized value:

R = (200 + 10x)(100-x), x = 40
R = (200 + 10(40))(100-40)
R = $36 000

What does this mean? With less clients, you can be making more money. This is a very simplistic representation. You can create very accurate correlations using functions. To get started, however, you need to know your market very well. Notice how I assumed a lot of things above - such as the amount of clients that will refrain from signing up for every $10.00 increase. These are things you'll need to research in order to start your optimization.

I think you should charge more otherwise try and delay it or extend your deliverable deadline - something that would normally take 2 weeks should be quoted as 3 or 4 depending on your work load - no harm giving yourself a longer deadline - if they don't like it then you just revise the quote, right?

Originally Posted by fresh-d

i would recommend just working harder and don't turn down any clients, just tell them to wait a bit longer.

I did this and I've managed to annoy a few clients whilst my recurring clients feel quite neglected. I'm so f*d and would totally recommend turning down a client if you are truly overworked! don't even bother passing the job onto another designer and project managing it yourself (which I also tried) because that doesn't work either - it's just a total mess!!

Chianti

· be bold and raise your price a little (monitoring what effect that has on your business)

That's what I've been doing - I went and quoted 50% more on something and got the job ! it was both good and bad - financially worth it but because it's rather complex - time constraints have contracted and I can't breathe or sleep now!

Knight13
If you want the clients money then just work faster,

lol - if only it were that simple!!
I find it draining - sometimes I'm spewing garbage (designs) because I'm just exhausting my mental capacity - I don't think this method applies well with designers


so yeah, I reckon you kindly turn them down by letting them know you are overworked - some may wait (and be impressed you're in demand!) otherwise take a chance and charge more - if you don't get the job then fine but if you get it then it's gonna be worth every penny