I always get people who need certain services I don’t offer, and would like to be able to retain them as clients, but just sub-contract specific aspects of their project to others…

Any recommendations would be helpful

Previously we used W3 Markup and XHTMLized – good code but pricey. Avoid CSS Rockstars!

The price jockeying that Mr. Langer mentioned is one of the downsides to outsourcing. The contractors get so caught up in undercutting everyone else that they totally forget about the quality and expertise needed to properly do the job.

One positive outsourcing bit is if you are US-based consider working with Argentina since they are in the same timezone. The sucky part of dealing with India/China is that you have to stay up late to catch them as they come into work – give them instructions and then hope that they understand. And when you wake up and check in with them in the morning it is the end of their day so they are way less responsive.

Another positive to outsourcing is when you are handling the meat of the project and just outsourcing one simple thing. Like “please create 301s for all of the old pages on my client’s site and point them to the correct new pages”. These type of gigs are perfect for outsourcing. But anything where a judgement call has to be made or any kind of UX decision has to be made fuhgetaboutit!

So I met guys from two different shops here in Germany, I sent them the same specifications for a project I worked out and let them make an offer sheet. Besides some Flash stuff that I could not do by myself the whole project lay inside my skill scope and so I could not only be very precise in my specs work but as well had a good idea of the amount of time it would take to get the job done.

One shop came to me with an estimation of 400 man hours, the other with some 170 man hours. Also the first candidate called a 80% higher rate per hour than the second one. My own estimation was also around 150-200 hours and I could not understand what 400 hours would be used for. They couldn’t explain (or didn’t want to) and instead negotiated a lower price for the same amount of work, wanted to know my client’s budget, etc.

Usually I do not know my client’s budget myself. We work out what is needed and I make an offer based how long I think it will take. Never came a client and said “I have a budget of x. What can I get for it?”.

The first shop turned out to be rather annoying. Calling me on the phone, sending mails, calling me on Skype and so on. They desperatey wanted the deal but because I felt treated unfairly by their unrealistic time estimations and because communication with the other shop went pretty well (and my client was willing to pay the price they and I were calling) I turned to them. Also they offered no-cure-no-pay for our first project.

I’m feeling pretty comfortable with the way communication goes, their skill level and how situations, project management, etc. are handled and so I’ll go on working with them on gigs I couldn’t play if I had to do it all on my own.

Meanwhile other India based shops try to get me. Some are pretty annoying, telling me about 60% and 70% discount on the first project and although they have the lowest rates of any I talked to by now I refused to work with them, cause I’m feeling like haunted by a stalker. Some don’t seem to understand that the price alone isn’t anything. It’s about valua not price and if I don’t sense that we are talking the same language we’ll never work together.