timeforcake creative media, inc. - really good website & graphic design

pricing

Pricing

For the vast majority of projects we work on, we provide cost estimate ranges. Exceptions include very small projects (for which we'll often jump right into and just bill hourly) and those rare projects with very clearly defined scope and deliverables (for which we provide fixed-price quotes).

Here are some common pricing questions and answers that should help make things clear.


What is your hourly rate?

This is competitive data that we do not provide to the general public. If you are interested in learning our exact rates and have never worked with us before, please contact us. If you are a timeforcake client, you may see a complete list of our current rates within our Client Section. (Don't have a password? Email us and we'll send one your way ASAP.)

Do you charge for an initial consultation?

Nope. We offer an initial, free 30-minute phone consultation to anyone considering working with us. During these consultations we often provide answers to problems, suggest cost-saving options, and point people to various service solutions and resources.

You have complete access to our expertise and recommendations for 30 minutes, completely free of charge. After 30 minutes we begin billing for our time.

What exactly do you charge for?

With website design/development projects, we charge for a combination of our time and the value we provide to our clients. These costs are provided to clients upfront in our project cost estimates.

For services such as the following that take small chunks of time, we simply charge our hourly rate:

  • Website coding and updates (15 minutes minimum)
  • Communications including phone calls and emails (that take more than 5 or so minutes)
  • Meetings and consultations
  • Provision of files, artwork, etc. to other contacts upon your request (this takes time!)
  • Research (stock photography, competitor websites, etc.)

We do not bill for initial consultations.

So, do you charge for any work or meetings before a contract is signed?

We provide a free 1/2 hour consultation to potential clients, a free proposal, and then free follow-up emails/phone calls to tweak project parameters into an acceptable contract. Outside of this work we do bill hourly for our time. This means that things such as strategy meetings, scheduled appointments with your copywriter, and website reviews with your board of directors, are all billed.

In essence, when our time or consulting is requested in the absence of a signed contract or initial payment, we bill hourly for our work. Website meetings and consultations provide clients with value and require our time--and we (unfortunately!) we have a limited number of hours to work with each day.

To provide our existing clients with the absolute best service and highest quality products possible, we aren't able to devote large chunks of time to potential clients who've not signed contracts and who aren't willing to pay hourly for our time and expertise.

Do you accept credit cards?

We do not accept credit cards except in unique situations requiring the necessity of doing so.

Do you offer payment plans?

Absolutely. We're flexible and are always willing to develop payment plans that work well for our clients and their unique needs and situations.

I need some work done ASAP. Can you do rush work? What are your charges for rush work?

We're here to help you, so we'll absolutely take on your rush project and get it done before that tight deadline. As we'll need to put other scheduled client work aside to ensure your work gets done on time, rush rates will apply.

  • Required next-day turnaround (due by 5pm next business day) is billed at our hourly rate + 65%.
  • Required weekend work (in on Friday, due on Monday) is billed at our hourly rate + 75%.
  • Required same-day turnaround (due before 9am the following business day or earlier) work is billed at our hourly rate + 80%.

All clients may review our exact rush rates on the pricing page within the Client Section of our website.

Do you charge for proposals?

We do not charge for most proposals--even though ours do take a good deal of time, research, planning, and thought so that we can present clear, organized, helpful project proposal documents to our potential clients.

May I please have a fixed price quote for my project?

If your project's scope, functionality, turnaround time, and content are all set in stone, and if changes during the design/development processes are unlikely . . . then yes, we'd be happy to provide you with a fixed price quote. The majority of website projects with which we're involved, however, do not meet within these requirements.

Are you the cheapest web/graphic design company around?

We are not.
But we are the best.

You can always find someone cheaper -- no matter who you work with (unless you found someone willing to do work for free, that is!).

We firmly believe that you get what you pay for, and our prices fairly represent our expertise, experience, creativity, quality, and abilities

How can I keep my costs down when working with timeforcake?

There are several actions you can take to be proactive and keep your costs down when working with us:

  • Plan ahead. Submitting a project to us with a reasonable turnaround requirement eliminates the possibility of incurring rush charges.
  • Communicate regularly. Answering our questions and responding to our emails in a timely fashion helps projects move forward efficiently and on schedule.
  • Organize! Let's say you have 50 photos to be placed throughout your website. Sending them, untitled, across eight separate emails means we'll need to sit down and try to guess, make sense of, and organize the files you've provided. We'll likely have to spend time contacting you and double-checking our work as we don't know your content/photos/employees/products as well as you do. Labeling and organizing your content for us ensures your project moves forward smoothly and efficiently.
  • Put thought into your update requests. Changing the color of that square on your website from blue to purple is no big deal--but changing it from blue to purple, then to orange (because your spouse likes orange), then to green because one of your employees thought it might work, then to black then to red polka dots then back to black and then once again to purple--well, that will definitely cost a bit more.
  • Proofread your text.
  • Try not to go "meeting crazy." Though we agree that meetings are important components of website projects, having meetings for the sake of having meetings can be costly. The same goes for lengthy phone calls.

How much do timeforcake websites cost?

Small websites usually start around $2,500 and move up from there. In the end though, just as there's no set answer for "How much does a car cost?", there's really no set answer to "How much does a website cost?".

To help bring clarification to the matter, we've compiled a list of the primary variables that will determine the final cost of your website:

  • Our prices
  • The functionality and services you require (Hosting? Slideshows? Stock photos? Online Store?)
  • The quality of the feedback, communications, answers you provided to us as we go about determining what you're looking for in your design
  • The number of changes and reversals you request during the process -- as well as when these changes are requested. (e.g., requesting major changes to the your approved site design ... right before we're set to launch ... would likely increase the project's final cost.)
  • The amount of interactivity within your site (forms, blogs, forums, etc.)
  • The quality of the images and photos you provide (do we need to spend hours Photoshopping the photos?)
  • The size of the website
  • Any animations or Flash components within the site
  • Whether or not rush turnaround is required