Do You Provide Estimates?
No. An estimate requires research, discovery time, a scope of work, milestones and completion date promises—is generally a business practice I have found to NOT be in my best interest. If it isn’t in my best interest it isn’t in your best interest either. I welcome new business but a written estimate is no longer a standard PCGS business practice. These remarks should prompt you to the next question…
Then What is Your Pricing Structure?
Super simple: I sell blocks of my time as Service Bundles. My hourly rate is currently a modest $75.00 per hour at the most. My most popular products are eight, seventeen and thirty-six hour Service Bundles.
May I read an example of the PCGS Service Bundle Agreement?
I thought you’d never ask— Download a sample PCGS Service Bundle Agreement here. Each PCGS Service Bundle is issued upon purchase via a secure HTTPS transaction on my site via Stripe. All you need do is choose from one of four pricing options. Stripe will send you a sales receipt. I will send you an email to let you know the transaction was successful.
How Does A PCGS Service Bundle Work?
Super simple. You are purchasing time.
Please keep in mind, while each PCGS Service Bundle can be considered unique—one thing is certain. You are purchasing my services based on time. It can be for one project or spread over several.
Usually once I am paid for a PCGS Service Bundle and supplied with a task list, I put your requested on my calendar. Then I begin to process some or all of the work you requested. I may not do everything you need all at once. I may only work a few hours and wait for your feedback or approval. We may set up some time for a telephone chat and brainstorm. Of course, your timeclock will pause as I wait for your feedback. You will be advised when PCGS Service Bundle time is getting low. At that time you can evaluate whether or not I’ve met your expectations and earned your trust. You must decide if you want to purchase another PCGS Service Bundle or not.
Why Should I Trust You to Get Anything Accomplished?
Unless you know me or have been referred to me by someone you trust, you shouldn’t.
I have been working mostly by referral since 1992. I started out offering freelance pre-press services, moved on to freelance technical illustration and layout artist, broke into Website creation in 1996 and happily found WordPress in 2010. I live and die by my reputation. Recommendations I make to clients when they need related goods or services are serious business to me.
How Much Do PCGS Service Bundles Cost?
Have a look at the PCGS Price Grid page. I display the most popular PCGS Service Bundles with value based pricing to make purchasing a retainer as simple as possible. I offer four sizes (The $300 Bundle is only shown on the popup form). Two of which will save you money and discount my hourly rate from 5%-10%!
What If I Still Want an Estimate?
I love your spunky persistence! I am happy to provide a solid all inclusive price (all details would be specified in a contract) but only if the you reveal your budget along with all aspects (please see the list of specifics in the next question, below) of your project. For your information I will not write an estimate for less than $4,000.00.
Can’t You Build a Site for Less?
It all depends on your expectations, how specific you can be about your:
- Requirements and goals
- Deadlines
- Likes and dislikes
- Your marketing goals. You do have that included in your business plan, yes?
- What assets you already own that can be leveraged into this project?
- Photography and graphics
- Written copy
- Previous articles
- Testimonials
- What branding elements can we leverage?
- Logo
- Color palette
- Fonts
- Style guide
- Return feedback in a timely fashion
How much retainer time you would like to purchase manage all that?
Can I purchase a smaller PCGS Service Bundle?
Of course you can! In fact you can specify any amount of time you like. Just drop me a note. Please keep in mind I work hourly and can only ballpark how much any given task will take.
How Does Purchasing a PCGS Service Bundle Benefit Me?
I’m so glad you asked!
- A PCGS Service Bundle can get your project going right away.
- It will force you to take inventory of your business like never before. That’s a very good thing.
- I can guide you but you are in control of what does and does not get accomplished.
- No long term commitments.
PCGS Service Bundle vs Maintenance Retainer
PCGS Service Bundles are based on time. They only expire when the amount of time purchased has been used to complete work on your behalf. Such work includes:
- Consultation via phone call or email
- Research time
- Design tasks
- Production tasks
- Site building tasks
- Approved software purchases on your behalf (ie: plugins or stock photos)
- Maintenance or migration tasks
- Or anything else I am tasked with on your behalf
Annual Maintenance Retainers are subscription based, which means maintenance services are conducted on a quarterly or monthly basis AND once you begin—your credit card will be billed on an annual basis for those maintenance services. There are built in features to each Maintenance plan but those features do not accrue from month to month or quarter to quarter. IOW, no rollover services. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about Annual Maintenance plans.
For the most part, the typical client will only need the Basic Maintenance plan. Please note: all PCGS Maintenance clients are required to be hosted at WPEngine.
What if I don’t understand any of this?
Relax—If you are new to this, knowing the difference between domain name ownership, domain privacy, hosting, hosting security, usernames and passwords for domains, hosting, FTP, and WordPress can be overwhelming. That’s why I’m here.
My relationships with clients are on a very flexible basis. If clients prefer me to handle issues for them—I do. If they would prefer I educate them to help them be more self sufficient, I do that too. Yes, it comes out of the Service Bundle but its all up to you.
More than selling Service Bundles, I maintain fantastic working relationships with my clients.
Call Me!
Of course I welcome discussions with existing as well as prospective clients about upcoming projects and their goals. And yes—we can kick around strategies to help move you toward your goals. But I no longer write estimates, scope of work documents or Website contracts. All the aforementioned practices are a legitimate part of the process for most businesses. But not for my business and not for my clients.
Whether you are a valued existing PCGS client, a shiny new PCGS client or a prospective PCGS client my door is always open and I’m happy to take a 20 minute phone call.
Next stop: Price Grid