Questions about website design business

Hi I have been designing my own websites for a few years now. I have many people wanting me to design sites for them. So I have been considering giving it a go.

How much should I charge?
What questions should I ask?
What kind of contract should they sign?

Thanks

 

1) This depends on your skills and what you'll offer. Valid CSS/XHTML? Joomla/Wordpress templates? How many pages? Quality of designs, etc. I crummy designer will charge $50, but top designers receive $5,000+ per page.
2) Whatever you need. Id spend at least 1 hour on the phone with the client.
3) http://www.sitepoint.com/article/bulletproof-web-design-contract, http://www.zenfulcreations.com/resources/worksheets/design_contract.htm, http://www.wilsonweb.com/worksheet/pkg-con.htm

 

If you are good, charge a lot and don't be shy about it in my opinion.

Also, be very clear upfront about what is entailed with your work contract...you don't want people calling you every other day for a year to make changes, or thinking that once the site is made, you'll host it and keep reregistering their domain name forever.

 

Find out what your competitors are charging. And you don't always have to charge less than them to get business.

 

You can charge after evaluating the time frame particular project is going to take per hour basis.