Systems Analysis
I offer a free one hour consultation to evaluate your needs and to determine if your project is a good collaborative opportunity for the both of us. If we agree to proceed, you have two options in terms of payment and rates:
Jobs contracted on an hourly basis
The simplest and cheapest method is the pay-as-we-go option where you get the rock bottom rates of $25/hr for nonprofits/small businesses and $35/hr for businesses. Any system analysis after the first free hour is also charged at this rate and so are support calls. I charge in 15 minute increments and only charge for productive work. If I get stuck, the clock stops until I’m back into production mode. I carefully itemize all work and send out bills and work summaries monthly. This is the equivalent of hiring someone form a temp agency, but without the burden of your paying fringe benefits and is by far your best deal.
Jobs contracted on a project bid basis
I try to avoid this method but it is an option for those clients who are not familiar with me and my work. For straightforward projects where we can clearly nail down the goals in great detail, I will submit a bid proposal. For complex projects, the systems analysis and bid proposal is often the most import aspect of the work, and can consume a good number of hours. I will charge my normal hourly rate for this systems analysis (with an hourly cap if you wish). In either case, if you accept the bid, I expect 1/3 payment before the coding, 1/3 payment when all of the features are implemented, and the final 1/3 when the site is fully tested and bug free. At that point, you are the complete owner of the site. You can choose to use my web hosting service at very reasonable rates or we can factor in the cost of porting the site to the compatible server of your choice. If support is not a part of the contract, support calls will be charged at the normal hourly rate.