Okay, that sounded weird the second I typed it, but it’s true in the sense that, although we want to grow and do well, we won’t do it at the expense of ethics and our appreciation of our clients. It’s not because we are superior human beings, although my wife is pretty cool, it’s because we’re people. Just like our clients, we want fairness wherever and whenever we can get it in the business world. If you don’t give a fair shake, don’t complain when you don’t get one.

Here’s an example of what most web designer’s attitudes are towards clients.
He’ll remain nameless, but the author of “The 7 Reasons…” below, is a very high-profile, successful web designer sharing his outlook on clients with his many fellow designers, the vast majority agreeing with him wholeheartedly. Although this is a single subject, it is enlightening to observe the standard attitude a lot of web designers have towards clients in general…

7 Reasons why they “Avoid Hourly Billing Like The Plague.”

Them: 1. “It’s time consuming”
“Constantly starting and stopping timers is an annoying and time-consuming practice—it’s completely counter-productive.”

Goldfish:
Keeping track of everyone’s time is the only way to pay your contractors correctly and demonstrate that your client is getting all that they are paying for (and more). Besides it’s your job to keep track of time with whatever you do. Otherwise, you’re just blowing bubbles through the client’s treasure chest…you know, like in a fish tank…okay never mind.

Them: 2. “It makes clients nervous”компютри
“You would be surprised how much more comfortable your clients will be if they know exactly how much they are going to spend. Open-ended hourly billing, even accompanied by a ballpark figure, makes buyers nervous. Flat-rate billing makes them feel secure.”

Goldfish:
Give control of the project’s time and money to the client (without the project being open-ended) and simply ask them what they are comfortable with. Sounds crazy, I know.

Them: 3. “It encourages lower productivity”
“When you’re getting paid by the hour, there’s no incentive to work faster or smarter. In fact, the slower you work, the more you get paid. Flat-rate billing encourages you to work efficiently.”

Goldfish:
There should be an incentive to work as efficiently and as hard as you can, no matter. How about appreciation of the client, their trust, and their money for incentive. There’s also the incentive of referrals when the client knows you worked your rear fins off for them.

Them: 4. “It lends itself to tedious website update work”
“Some may feel differently about this, but I hate doing updates on ugly sites I didn’t design. Charging by the hour lends itself to this kind of work. I want to spend my time designing new sites and helping my recurring clients. Flat-rate billing will help you do more of what you like to do.”

Goldfish:
Helping clients with whatever sites they currently have helps them in a pinch and surprise! they become “recurring clients.” I hate to get all complicated but, if GoldfishNetwork didn’t design the site and the client asks for help, guess what? We help them.

Them: 5. “It doesn’t stop feature creep”
“One common misconception about hourly billing is that it puts an end to feature creep. In reality, all it does is frustrate the client. I their mind, every time they ask for something that should have been included in your original time estimate, they’re being hit with unfair additional charges. Start with a flat rate with plenty of padding for feature creep, and this will rarely happen.”

Goldfish:
Our proposal to the client spells out what is included in the first place and gives examples of what kind of additional work the client may, or may not want done as the project moves along. As a client I wouldn’t want my trusted web designer to “Start with a flat rate with plenty of padding” and leave it at that.

GoldfishNetwork gives two options, one option is a single solid number bid (that does include padding that we explain thoroughly) and the other option is a hybrid that gives the client the safety of a single solid number with options and a discount on top of it. Both options leave the possibility of the project coming in under the proposal (which happens). We don’t just scoop up all the gold coins at the bottom of the tank.

Them: 6. “It severely cripples billing potential”
“Imagine giving an $3000 estimate for a very basic website. Let’s say you’ve been designing websites for awhile and you’re getting pretty fast—you know it will take you about ten full hours of work to get the project finished. Billing by the hour, puts your rate at $300 per hour. It sounds outrageous when you put it in those terms. They have no idea how much work and effort it’s taken to hone your skills to their current level. That same site may have taken you fifty hours when you first started designing websites. Flat-rate billing allows you to charge what your services are really worth.”

Goldfish:
I guess the point is, hey, why not charge $300 per hour for a basic site, the client won’t know and besides, in the past, you had to learn your craft and everything. I guess this well-known, wealthy web designer feels that he has paid his dues and can now pull stuff like this with a clear conscious.

GoldfishNetwork charges less than the guys “in the city” because we’ve spent years working out how to combine “People, Process, and Technology” to deliver top value and get some new blue gravel for the old tank once in a while.

Them: 7. “It encourages clients to abuse you”
“When you charge by the hour clients tend to argue and grumble about every little charge because they can see every little charge on the invoice. When clients feel that you’re cheating them by not working fast enough, they can get really grumpy. Flat-rate billing keeps everybody happy.”

Goldfish:
Hey, mister successful web designer guy(s)… If your clients “abuse you,” “tend to argue and grumble,” “feel like your cheating them,” and “get really grumpy” as stated above… you may not be good at having clients.

Folks, this widespread attitude that clients are so darn-gum difficult and unappreciative of the fine and dandy, “smoke and mirrors,” $300 per hour work they’re receiving is perhaps a wee bit arrogant. Unfortunately, you’ll find this attitude all over the place.

Maybe these web designers should take a nice long swim and think about why their clients seem so ignorant and hard to get along with, they might get lucky and see their own reflection in the water.

There, I feel better. I hope you do too.

The Times
US and World News provided by Reuters

GoldfishNetwork.com Owners Lisa and Michael Thayer Have a Passion For Marketing

By Jennifer Clampet
The Times, Jan 24, 2008

“BIG FISH, BIG POND” Michael and Lisa Thayer, owners of GoldfishNetwork.com, hold in their hands their own marketing plan for their Web site design and marketing business.

TUALATIN, OR. Through muffled crunching, a woman began to speak on the other end of the phone.

The woman caller was unmistakably munching on something as she began to talk, remembered Lisa Thayer, co-owner of GoldfishNetwork.com.

The caller admitted she had found Lisa’s business card attached to the front of a bag of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers. The crackers had quieted her hunger, and the card had piqued her interest.

“What exactly can you do for me?” the woman caller asked.

In a sense, Michael and Lisa Thayer’s company, GoldfishNetwork.com, works to get the word out.

“We take a client’s vision and make it a web site that represents them out in the world. That’s our goal,” Michael said. But the GoldfishNetwork also works to help clients, mostly small business owners, learn to market themselves.

As a 15-year-old dishwasher at a restaurant, Michael learned early on that marketing pays off. And at the age of 27, he set a record as designer and distributor of a Lake Tahoe calendar that sold 65,000 copies, still a record today.

Now at the age of 50, Michael said, “I learned to sell myself and what I was doing, because if I didn’t, no one else would.”

“Every business has a story,” noted Michael as he leaned forward in a swivel chair at the GoldfishNetwork offices off SW Boones Ferry Road in Tualatin. The blue walls and jazz music playing in the background give the office a soothing atmosphere.

Life hasn’t always been this calm. Being married to an entrepreneur, Lisa said, is like riding a roller coaster but, after 14 years of marriage, the couple has been able to find a perfect venue for each of their talents. Michael, the creative one who loves to hear people’s stories, and Lisa, the numbers-driven one with a business degree, both share a love for marketing.

The couple owns shelves filled with books on the subject. Michael calls marketing their hobby. But as GoldfishNetwork approaches its three year anniversary, marketing is proving to be more than just a pastime.

This month the company was recognized as one of 14 businesses in Oregon and Southern Washington to be in the running for the 2007 Better Business Bureau Business of the Year Torch Award.

The winners of the 2007 Business of the Year Torch Award will be announced at an awards ceremony and luncheon Jan. 24 at the Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland.

Other businesses nominated for the award include Ron Tonkin Toyota, Hawthorne Auto Clinic and Bridge City Legal Inc. in Portland and Paintegrity in Forest Grove.

The public nominated the businesses for demonstrating excellence in customer service, innovative business practices and community involvement.

The Thayers believe they were nominated for the award because of their community involvement. The couple is actively involved in the Love Box for Troops program, which encourages people to pack up boxes of goodies and send them off to deployed troops, and both are active in the Tualatin Chamber of Commerce. Michael is serving as a chamber board member this year, and Lisa is the chair of the technology committee.

“There is no end to the help they’ve given to us,” said chamber Executive Director Carla Thaler.

The Thayers and their contract employees designed and implemented the TualatinCrawfishFestival.com web site within two weeks as the crawfish festival drew near.

“They came back with something better than we ever expected,” Thaler said of the web site.

The Thayers would like to be known in the community for the business-building work they do for their clients. But for now most people know the couple for their marketing idea, the goldfish.

Cabinets above desk top computers in the company’s office hold bags of goldfish crackers ready to be handed out as part of the company’s own marketing plan.

Lisa noted that it’s pretty common for the office to get calls from people snacking on the crackers as they chat away about their business needs.

Copyright 2008 Pamplin Media Group, 6605 S.E. Lake Road, Portland, OR 97222 • 503-226-6397

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1) Your business is very important to you. Ours is very important to us. We have a reputation for going “above and beyond” for clients like you and for delivering top quality websites and website development. Besides, if we don’t pay attention, we won’t be able to pay anything else.

2) You’ll find that we’re “people people.” We actually enjoy the interaction we have with our clients and the satisfaction that comes with a successful project and happy people who give us checks.

3) When you work with us, you will appreciate the fact that we are business people running a media arts and marketing company, not artists trying to run a business. That means we understand budgets, project deadlines and other factors necessary for a business to succeed.

4) Most web design companies won’t take projects under $5K. They have high overhead and can’t make smaller projects profitable for their company. We actually specialize in redesign. Why pay for more work than you really need?

5) We offer unique “Time Block” billing. This allows you, the client, complete control of your project scope and budget. Unheard of in the web design world!

6) You’ll find that we communicate well. Telephone messages, faxes, emails, whistling, and hand signals all get a prompt response from our team.

7) You can actually walk in and visit. We love meeting our clients face to face and sitting down with them to understand and deliver the online image they want. We offer a FREE initial consultation of up to 1 hour. Besides, we also have a vast tea selection, great coffee, and bags of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish snacks.

Contact us at www.GoldfishNetwork.com and we’ll be glad to be of service to you.
And you’ll have new friends in the web design and marketing business!

Thanks!
Michael and Lisa Thayer