Question: I am a web developer, just starting out as a freelancer.

I have had a few people contact me through my website asking for a quote on how much a project will cost. In order to achieve a cost, I must spend time and effort gathering as much information as possible: drawing out workflows, developing initial sitemaps, etc. I don't know how long a project will take until I have done this, and all of this takes time.

The problem is, I work full time -- so the only time I have is evenings and weekend. By that point, the client has lost interest, and all my efforts go unpaid.

My question is: How am I supposed to put a quote together on such little information without spending so much time researching, gathering data and working everything out?

The client wants a quote within 5 hours, but I need 10 hours to work on it.

Answer: 
As someone who has worked as a freelancer while working full time, I've come to know that I just simply can't move as quickly as someone who works full time as a freelancer and who has no other work obligations. As a result, when someone claims they need something in a shorter time period than what I can possibly meet, then this is a red flag that this isn't the client for me.

If a client is giving unrealistic expectations during the estimate period, there's a strong likelihood the client will have these same unrealistic expectations once they're actually paying you money.

I generally spend a couple days putting together an estimate for something that may take a few weeks to a couple months. When I've taken shortcuts in this area I've found that I went over my budget and had to eat some of the cost. So it's important to take a reasonable amount of time to estimate the project. The bigger and more complex the project, the longer the estimate may take.

Lastly, I've found that breaking up the project into several, paid deliverables can help speed up the estimate process by focusing only on one part at a time. For instance, if you take a 6 month project and break it up into 6 parts, you could give an estimate on the first deliverable. This of course depends on the client and whether or not they're willing to break things up, so be sure to talk with them about this first.
When you can't estimate the time you will be working on a project, try to agree on a price per hour, and give the client a rough estimate of the time you'll need.

When a client wants something in 5 hours, and you need 10 hours, tell him. He can either choose to wait 5 more hours, or to go with someone else. There's nothing to do about this *on short-term*. On long-term, you can develop your skills to save time later on.

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> How am I supposed to put a quote together on such little information without spending so much time researching, gathering data and working everything out?
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If you have too little information, you can do two things or a combination of both:

* Ask for more information
* Give a very rough estimate with upper and lower boundaries

You will have to invest some time in making up the quote. When that takes too much time and you don't get the job, that's your risk being a freelancer.