Friend: How much do you charge for a website?

Me: Depends, what do you need?

Friend: Just a basic website.

Me: I am going to need more details than that, is it static HTML site? Do you want to be able to add content yourself? Do you have hosting? Do you....

Friend: Dude, just give me a rough estimate.

Me: But...

Friend: It's for a friend, he has an idea for a business.

Me: ...fine...$100 million 👿

//Because making a website is just a push of a button to some people

Doesn't sound like a "friend" to me, more like an acquaintance. The kind that just wants to use you.

@TerriToniAX definitely looks like so

"//Because making a website is just a push of a button to some people"

not a button, but a lot of buttons ;)

Always answer that it's either X an hour, or X a page then it's up to them to work out what they want so they can find out a price.

@biscuit Definitely go for X an hour, as a "page" can be anything from X hours to XXL hours.

Infinity, don't do business with friends

@epse politely, I disagree. I have lots of friends as clients (some friends before, some after)... Works well as long as you're honest with them.

@biscuit it works well as long as there are clear understandings about what you will do for what price. A former friend of mine asked for a "simple" website and was willing to pay 2k for it. (website was an informative multilingual site for a employment agency) then he asked for a small feature which would be cool and wouldnt cost much extra time. Fast forward 3months later the website had a compete back office for employees, employers and admins to do anything from uploading timesheets to generating own resume files. When I told hem the price wasn't 2k anymore he got pissed since that was the price we agreed upon at the beginning, explaining that the site requirements had been changed over and over didn't work, because it was still the same site (???). Thats how I learned to be very strict with people, and even more with friends. You need very clear communication and if he asks to change something even so small that's okay but the price will increase with X.

@JediN1nja - your mate just failed the seriousness test.

To be fair they do now have those one click WordPress installers.

So simple, tell him go wix it for free, why to pay devs.

$100 mil? healthcare.gov ;)?

@DonMcCoy wHY NoT dO iT yOuRsElF

@jeeper
This damn song they translated it with all languages the bastards 😃.
But sometimes they save us from such customer's type, not all customers are joy to work with even if it's for 100k$.

@ImNotAlfred Did you tell him before you added all the extras that it would cost more? If not, then that's you missing out on the being honest part of the deal.

@biscuit at first not, because it was such a small adjustment and because he was a friend, there is where my argument comes in to being very clear about what you expect, and what he can expect in return from you.

Some one found me and asked me to give him an estimate, just a simple website like many people will say, but his is really really simple, simple as Google website. That's what he told me. And I give him the same answer as you did

@TerriToniAX as a guideline, be careful and don't assume too much when you post comment xD

Becoz imagine if you guess it wrong, turning out that "Friend" in the story refers to OP's dearest gf but not acquaintance. your comment would hurt so much xD

@psfr937 OK, you're right. I should rephrase it, like this: "Doesn't sound like a \"friend\" to me, more like an acquaintance or gf. The kind that just wants to use you."

Well, truth hurts. And if it is the truth that the "friend" is in fact the ranter's girlfriend then my painful comment might be an eye-opener. But hey, at least she asked for a price, implying he will get paid for the job in the end. The mother of my children would just have said "Make a website for my friend and do it NOW!" :D

@JaredDunn My gf (= girlfoe ;)) deserves her own programming language the way she expresses herself, with syntaxes like "but first" and operators like "NNOT" and "XNOT".

@matsaki95 1000 monkeys w/ vim