I have a general question, How do you go about charging for a Database to a client.
I am new at this and have absolutely no clue. It seems to me charging by the hour can get pretty pricey. My goal is to build them for Non-Profits and Small business owners. Where money is a big concern for them but yet they need a GOOD database to keep their business flowing smoothly.

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Reply from Richard Rost:

I write down 4 or 5 random numbers on paper. Put them in a hat. Shake... LOL

Just kidding. Pricing your services is always a tricky subject. I struggled with this in the beginning as well. As you get more experienced you figure out how much to charge. You want to charge them enough so that you can pay your bills, but you don't want to overcharge them and lose business.

My general rule of thumb is to set an hourly rate and then try to gauge up front how long it would take me to build the database. Quote the customer a range between X and Y hours. That way they have a low and high price to expect. Get detailed specifications from your client UP FRONT, IN WRITING because clients LOOOOVE to always say "oh, that's great... now we need it to do this..." Then you can say, "OK, that wasn't in the original specs, it's gonna cost you $X more."

Or you could always go with a flat fee for building a specific database if you don't want to bill hourly. This is good for simple databases where you can easily see what's going to be involved.

What to set your hourly rate at? That depends on how good you are, and how much your competitors charge. I personally charge $129/hour for development work. However, I always tell prospective clients that you get what you pay for. I know that I can do in 1 hour what less experienced developers would do in a day. So "hourly rate" is actually misleading.