[thelist] pricing for web sites?

Jenni Beard jenni at theweblotus.com
Wed Sep 23 12:35:59 CDT 2009


I do have a clause in all of my contracts that states, "If stoppage of work
occurs for more than (30) days due to lack of feedback and/or content, The
Web Lotus reserves the right to require final payment due immediately."

That said, I've never actually exercised this because the few times I've
brought it up, I received an extremely negative response and feared that not
only would the client not come through with the content, but that he/she
would also never pay me for the balance of the project.  And while I do
require a 50% deposit, often by the time that lack of receipt of content
becomes an issue, I've invested more than 50% of the time allotted into the
project.  I've been burned too many times to risk that coming up again, so
generally do not push my luck.

I'm dealing with a client right now who is on a monthly agreement and is 4
months behind.  She has not given me the content that I need to proceed with
the work I'm supposed to be doing, but her contract stipulates that she pay
the fee whether the two hours per month are used or not.  It really isn't a
large enough sum to be worth going into small claims court over it, and if I
were to do so I would lose a client who might, once her business improves,
become a better regular client.  It is frustrating at best.  And this is
someone who when I am able to reach her (rarely), she launches into a "got
to have it done yesterday" mode.

It seems that so many of the small business owners that I contract with are
rather unstable that way, though this one is more extreme than most.  If I
had work pouring in, I wouldn't exactly worry about keeping those clients,
but times are really hard right now!  Still haven't found the perfect way of
handling this...

Jenni

-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org
[mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of Brian White
Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 12:13 PM
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: Re: [thelist] pricing for web sites?

>Something obvious that I missed - waiting on clients.  Ouch.
>
>You also have to consider how things work with clients who linger, 
>professional procrastinators.  You may develop something great, 
>takes 40 hours, but you're in content limbo.  If you don't charge 
>until the job is done, then some jobs may never finish, not because 
>you didn't do your part.

This is something we've often struggled with. Some clients never 
completely finish their Web site content and leave a project 
languishing for a long time. Very few actually provide all content
in a timely manner. Although we do collect 50% of the project's 
agreed upon final cost up front, naturally we'd like to avoid the "we 
don't have all the content" situation as much as possible.

I'd be interested in knowing how some of you handle this. Do you 
include a financial penalty in your contract if all content is not 
supplied by a certain date? Do you require all content from the 
client before even agreeing to start a project? Other ideas or 
strategies?

Thanks.
-- 

Brian White
President - WebHostingSolutions.com
"Because Every Click Is A Customer"
Web Hosting \ Web Design \ E-Commerce
1-888-522-3738
http://www.webhostingsolutions.com
-- 

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