“There has been some communication problems…”
“They were unable to deliver according to the brief.”
“My developer’s ignoring me.”
Any of these sound familiar to you?
After 8 years in the industry, I’ve encountered several clients who have had such problems dealing with the web designer that they hired. More often than not, these designers or developers were from external sources, or charged extremely cheaply – think $500 for a full WordPress website. In almost all cases, there was also no contract or specifications of the services to be provided as well. This is an important aspect of any agreement as it makes sure that both parties are agreeable to the price and scope of service provided, and for how long. However, with developers charging such attractive prices, it is highly unlikely that they will go through the proper administrative processes.
So what happens then, when you don’t have a contract and your developer goes MIA? You do not have any legal documents to actually do any action against your service provider! For a $500 fee, how many hours do you expect your developer to spend on your project?
So a lot of my clients have to turn to another designer/developer, and then pay them ANOTHER fee to restart or continue their unfinished project. Having wasted their initial budget spent on a low-quality service provider who wasn’t able to give them what they really wanted, they now have to spend even more.
This is why, all my projects:
- Start with a proper specifications list with expectations, scope and terms & conditions
- Everything is in black and white, and signed / agreed by both parties
- Duration of service and after-sales is also clearly stated
- Client communication is integral throughout the process of the whole project
- We’re locals, working in-house, so communication is no issue
Of course, we can never compete with companies or freelancers that provide the same service for $500. But in this industry, you get what you pay for. There’s no such thing as cheap and good. We are definitely not the cheapest, but what’s most important to us is the value. We are always looking to improve our portfolio and work quality, and focus on quality rather than quantity of websites produced. So you can rest assured, that your project is of great importance to us.