ESTIMATING
Rough Estimates for Simple Sites
For small- to medium-sized sites that require few data-driven pages — search tools, forms, uploading or downloading capabilities, for example — often we can offer a quick estimate after a brief telephone interview. These quotes are always ranges: best and worst case scenarios. We understand that it can help to have a rough sense of costs sometimes before taking the conversation further.
Rough Estimates for More Complex Sites
Again, we understand the need to have an idea of the cost of a web project before investing a lot of time in the process. For sites that may require some data-managed pages, we make every attempt to respond to your request, by phone or email, within three business days.
Written Estimates
When a more formal process is required, we provide written estimates within five to ten business days. Because we really never know how robust the site will be when we have completed the consultation and planning stages of the site construction, the prices we provide are ranges. Once we fine-tune the navigation and identify the content on the site, we will provide more detailed pricing at your request.
RFPs
So, here’s the deal. We are a small enterprise: myself, a full-time assistant, and a contract tech/IT person. (Of course, we collaborate with a host of professionals at the top of their game — writers, programmers, illustrators, photographers, printers, etc. — who complement our skill sets.) We produce a crazy amount of work. Though we welcome web work of all sizes and scopes, given our size and the volume of work we produce, it is challenging at times to find the several hours, the half day, or even the full day it takes to reply responsibly to a complex RFP. And, at our core, we are noncompetitive. When the fit is right, pricing has almost never been an issue. Our fees tend to match or better most providers with similar skill sets. Frankly, one of the ways we keep our overhead down is that we DON’T spend hours or days responding to RFPs, so our clients pay for what we produce for them (rather than the paperwork we’ve produced for other potential clients).
Do send us your RFPs. We’ll respond within a day or two to inform you of whether we intend to be included in your process or not. Or we’ll ask if we can send other information in lieu of the traditional many-pages-long RFP responses.
On several occasions, when we thought the fit was right, we suggested that a client get back to us if they failed to find what they were looking for through the formal RFP process. A few have taken us up on the offer and we did ultimately end up doing the work.
I tend to build relationships in my work and I believe that “fit” should be a major element, if not the defining ingredient, in who you choose as your vendor. It can be difficult to assess that through the RFP process. We get the bulk of our work through referrals and we turn down projects for which I am less than confident we are the right match. You want to be working with folks who understand your needs and with whom you enjoy working.
So, feel free to send us an RFP. We’ll respond to the best of our abilities. And, remember, our door is always open should you fail to find what you are looking for through your RFP process.
Cost Overruns
We do our best to provide accurate estimates. And we do a pretty good job of it. However, it is not uncommon for clients to ask for unforeseen changes (author’s alterations), additional pages, or new functionalities as their site construction progresses. If the quoted work comes in under budget, of course we are more than happy to accommodate these changes and additions, when schedules allow. If the budget can’t cover the additional work, we will estimate the additional cost and ask for your okay before moving forward. More work takes more time. We will always do what we can to meet the original schedule, but if the added work could impact our ability to meet your deadline, again, we’ll let you know.
