FAQs
- What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
My projects usually start with a free face-to-face or telephone consultation. Then I typically write and email a Proposal Document that demonstrates my understanding of my prospect's needs and estimates tasks, costs and scheduling. Depending on the required complexity of a project, I often present "Project Phases" in my Proposal Document. In these cases, I require a 50% deposit of the estimated cost to start each Project Phase. The next proposed Project Phase does not start until my client is satisfied and approves the current Phase. In this way, the client's financial risk is minimized, yet I receive some funds to keep me going during the development period. Of course some projects are too simple to require that amount of paperwork, so then a simple agreement by email is sufficient, and that saves the cost of preparing a full Proposal Document.
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
Website development is very dependent on high-tek tools and infrastructure. And it evolves faster than most professional disciplines. That means a web developer is constantly learning new methods, as well as searching for and mastering newer and better tools and resources. Fortunately the World Wide Web is not only the venue for websites, but also the source of new learnings and tools and of sharing with other pros.
- How did you get started doing this type of work?
With one foot in the Digital Art world, a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) degree and one foot in online geekdom, it was really pretty natural to connect my creativity, visual skills, teaching, business experience and writing skills - by developing websites. Because I've always made my hobbies and interests into my "work", I've seldom had to "hold down an uninteresting job". That is, "work for a living". When you work for yourself, like me, "work" should be very much like "play". Otherwise what's the point? If it's no fun, than it's way easier to just be an employed working droid and leave your problems at the office than to actually run your own business. Running a business is not easy.