The Zenscope Pricing Philosophy
In business, the term “transparency” refers to a philosophy of openness with one’s clients—letting them know both how your business works and why it works that way. In the spirit of transparency, I’m taking a step that few companies or contractors in this business make: offering an online explanation of exactly how I price projects.
When it comes to design and development projects, I don’t give any flat rates for certain project types or for a given number of pages. Cookie-cutter price lists are often a sign of cookie-cutter results, and my clients deserve better. Every project gets a customized estimate and proposal based on the results of your free initial consultation.
How it Works
Per-Project Pricing
For most jobs, I prefer to charge by the project rather than by the hour. I’ve found that per-hour pricing seems to raise the specter of huge cost overruns; clients usually like to have a single “hard” price that they can fit into their budgets. On the other hand, I need to know how much my time is worth if I want to make a living.
To make my pricing policies as fair as possible to my clients and myself, I use a process that’s fairly commonplace among independent contractors in a variety of industries:
- The client and I have a free initial consultation to discuss the client’s needs and the goals for this particular project. The requirements that emerge from this consultation, taken as a whole, represent the project’s scope.
- I use my notes from the conversation to prepare a proposal for the project. This proposal includes:
- a concise re-statement of the project’s requirements,
- an estimate of how long each step of the project will take to complete,
- a projected date for full completion of the project,
- and a cost estimate based on my hourly consulting rate (see below). The cost of the project will only change if the scope of the project changes.
- I send the proposal to the client for review. If everything meets with their approval, the proposal is incorporated into a contract for the job. If not, then the client can request whatever changes are needed to bring the proposal in line with their requirements, vision, and budget for the project.
Per-Hour Pricing
Sometimes per-project pricing is impractical for a particular job. Other times, a company has a policy that outside contractors must be paid on an hourly basis. In situations like these, I keep a log of my time and bill at my hourly consulting rate of $60 USD per hour.
Invoicing
For work that was priced using the per-project method, I bill clients a percentage of the total price up-front and the remainder in stages as certain portions of the work are finished.
Called milestones, these boundary lines between stages of a project give the client an opportunity to sign off on what’s been done up to that point. This extra level of communication helps ensure that the final result meets a client’s requirements and matches their vision. The milestones for a given project are determined before work begins, and are incorporated into the contract.
For projects that require hourly billing, invoices will be sent either weekly (for small, short projects) or monthly (for large, long-term projects). With both hourly and milestone billing, invoices are delivered via e-mail to an address specified by the client.
Payment
Payments can be made with a credit card, by PayPal money transfer, or with a cashier’s check from a United States bank. Credit card transactions are processed through PayPal, but you don’t need a PayPal account to pay with a credit card.
All the prices and rates quoted on this website are given in United States Dollars. I can accept payment in other currencies, but such payments must be sent via PayPal (see PayPal’s list of supported currencies).
Questions?
If you have any questions about my pricing practices or rates, please send me an e-mail. I’ll do my best to provide any information you need.