Including an accurate cost and time estimate in your proposal will increase your chance of success in securing freelance work and repeat business on Guru.com. 
So, how can you calculate accurate cost and time estimates?
Cost estimates
All proposals require that you provide the Employer with a total budget estimate for the project. However, within the proposal, cost estimates can be presented in various ways, including per hour, per project, per page, and per word. Based on your area of expertise, you must determine the best way to present your cost estimate. While it is common for writers to calculate their fees per word or per page, many Employers may be unfamiliar with this industry standard. As such, you may want to present your cost estimate in industry and layman's terms. For example, "I submit a proposed cost estimate of $9,375.00 [250 pages with approximately 750 words per page at a cost of $0.05 per word]."
Once you have decided how you will present your cost estimate, use the suggestions below to determine a price suited for the work requested.
- Call around to firms that offer the services you are offering and check their prices.
- Check with friends or colleagues who are Freelancers in the same industry to see what they are charging.
- Check with professional organizations that cater to your profession. Many of them maintain cost statistics to help their members gauge the going rate.
- Base your rate on what you quoted in the past for similar work.
Time estimates
Within the proposal, time estimates can be presented in various ways. Depending on the project and the information available, you must determine the best way to quote the project length. If you are applying for a web design project, but you don't know the size of the website, you can calculate the amount of time it will take based on assumptions. For example, "I submit a proposed time estimate of 3 weeks [homepage design - 1 week, internal page design - 1 day, graphic and text upload for up to 20 pages - 6 days, customer review - 2 days, make and upload changes - 5 days]."
Use the suggestions below to determine a time estimate for the work requested.
- Call around to firms that offer the service you are offering and check their time quotes.
- Check with friends or colleagues who are Freelancers in the same industry and ask how long they believe it will take to complete the project.
- Base your time estimate on how long it has taken to complete similar work in the past.
The more informative and accurate your estimates are, the more favorably Employers will view your project work. And they will be more likely to leave you positive feedback.
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