Brand new member - Budget same as per hour?

[al_zolli]

Hello, I am very new at all of this and wanted to know if a clients budget (let's say $40) is the same as what they are paying per hour.

I submitted a proposal for this short term project which will take a day or two and cannot imagine that the client will pay $40 for the entire effort. Kindly set me straight and advise about budget.

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Al,

Fixed price budget are set for specific task to be finished and delivered to the client, not counting the duration of the project. Here you complete and submit a series of specified milestone deliverables to the client. We are always advising to discuss all of the details for the project and work only on funded milestones.
Additionally you can check out this Thread and learn everything you need about getting started here.

[gilbert-phyllis]

Al, welcome to Upwork!

Often, a ludicrously low budget in a job posting is meant as a placeholder. If the project looks like a good fit for you and -- this is critical when you are starting out -- it's an assignment on which you know you can hit a home run (and score great client feedback), then submit a proposal with your real quote and clarify what you're basing the quote on.

Look at what other projects the client has advertised and/or hired via Upwork, what they've been paying. If they have some history, you can usually tell if they are bargain hunters, aka bottom feeders. Steer clear of those, they're really hard to please and your highest priority in the beginning is to get successful projects under your belt with good feedback, to start building toward a good JSS and Top Rated status.

[yitwail]

---

@Phyllis G wrote:

Al, welcome to Upwork!

Often, a ludicrously low budget in a job posting is meant as a placeholder. 

---

Good point, but usually a placeholder is a lot smaller, like $5 or so, $5 being the minimum fixed price milestone amount. $40 is I think too high to be a placeholder, so in this case that's the entire budget. Depending on the job itself, a shady freelancer could do something lightning fast, like google translate a document, for instance, or use spinner software to pass off someone else's writing as your own. 

[gilbert-phyllis]

---

@John K wrote:

---

@Phyllis G wrote:

Al, welcome to Upwork!

Often, a ludicrously low budget in a job posting is meant as a placeholder. 

---

Good point, but usually a placeholder is a lot smaller, like $5 or so, $5 being the minimum fixed price milestone amount. $40 is I think too high to be a placeholder, so in this case that's the entire budget. Depending on the job itself, a shady freelancer could do something lightning fast, like google translate a document, for instance, or use spinner software to pass off someone else's writing as your own. 

---

Hmm... I've presumed that it varies across disciplines. But maybe I've unwittingly insulted some clients by assuming their $50 or $100 was a placeholder when their description indicated a $2500 project and I bid accordingly! C'est la vie.

[kat303]

---

@Al Z wrote:

Hello, I am very new at all of this and wanted to know if a clients budget (let's say $40) is the same as what they are paying per hour.

I submitted a proposal for this short term project which will take a day or two and cannot imagine that the client will pay $40 for the entire effort. Kindly set me straight and advise about budget.

---

The $40 is basically what the client wants to pay for the job. But, you should submit a proposal with an amount of what YOU would charge for completing the project. Sometimes it may be below a client's budget, Sometimes it's right on a clients budget and sometimes it's above the clients budget because a client may not realize the amount of work that may actually take place and the time it will take to finish the job. I have bid above a clients budget explaining why and explaining what I would do for that amount. (and I have gotten jobs doing that.)