>I prefer to work out the estimated hours and quote a fixed price if
>the specifications are well defined. Be careful on this, it can kill
>you if there is feature creep or if there are a lot of unwritten
>requirements that pop up just as you think you are done. Your week
>could turn into three, over 4 or 5 calendar weeks, which means you
>would be making better money, with less stress, heaving bricks around
>or something. Add a bit for contingencies too. Things *always* come
>up.

A good way of reducing this problem is to write your interpretation of =
the spec and get the customer
to approve it. I have NEVER had a spec from a customer that has been =
sufficiently complete and
detailed.
If they then want 'extras', if possible, convince them to accept delivery=
 of the 'basic' version
first, then add bells & whistles later.

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different
ways.  See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.