Prometheus
New Member
Ok first, a little about me. I left a small IT firm a few months ago to start my own IT business. My growth has been slow but steady with most of my clients being small businesses with a few residential customers thrown in to pay the bills. I know from experience with the company I recently left that I will encounter clients who need web pages designed or updated. I have designed a few sites, mostly because I was begged to, but truth be told I have basically no artistic ability and it takes me a ridiculously long time to build a page because I can't 'picture' it. I have decided my time is best spent doing what I do best, that being setting up networks, however I do not wish to send my clients to local design firms who may also offer competing services, so I am looking to subcontract any web design work that comes my way. I am not looking for random people to just hand jobs off to, but rather a partner with a proven design business that can deliver quality work they stand behind. In all fairness any work I generate will be few and far between at least until I build a sizable clientele, but I want to get the relationship put into place now so I have a strong offering moving forward. Once I find the designer that meets my criteria I do plan to actively promote web design as a service my business offers. You will notice, however, that my criteria are rather strict as any work done for me will be a direct reflection on my business in the eyes of the client, and I won't risk my reputation for anything. Listed below are my criteria:
1. I am not looking for someone who designs pages as a hobby. I definitely don't mind if you're a solo act but you must do this for a living. I don't want to have to worry that at some point you're going to run out of time or interest for your hobby and leave me with no one to go to when I need to.
2. You must be able to provide a reasonable time frame to get a site put together, and stick to it. For example, I was up until 7am Thursday morning getting a project finished, then woke up at 10am to deliver it. When I tell a client that I will have a project done at a specific time I will do everything in my power to make sure I deliver, and I'm looking for someone with that same dedication to their business. It's one of the things that keeps my clients coming back to me.
3. If you are not located in the US your English must be fluent and easy to understand. You must also be available and able to call US numbers during normal business hours here to speak to my clients about their needs. Your written communication must also read as if English is your first language.
4. You must have a portfolio of websites for me to take a look at. I will need to be able to visit the actual site, and you must have proof that you created the sites. I will be looking at the page source, so the code needs to be clean and easy to follow. I'm very particular about coding neatness and firmly believe that attention to detail in writing the code reflects your attention to detail to the site in general, and reflects your professionalism towards your business. In addition, if you were to disappear and my clients needed changes to their pages, I don't want to have to spend two hours just figuring out what you've done. Also, in this day and age, if all of your sites are still built with tables they have to be pretty spectacular for me to overlook it. I also don't mind if you've added 'Designed by <your business>' to the bottom of your pages, but don't want it at the bottom of the ones you do for me. Oh, and I don't like all-flash sites, so unless the client specifically asks for it, it's not what I'm looking for.
5. The websites will be hosted at a provider that I designate. I know everyone likes to make a little extra scratch reselling hosting, but I'm not going to risk losing access to the websites if you disappear. I will also handle registering domain names.
6. I will be subcontracting the job to you, and in the eyes of my clients you will be my employee. When my client asks if I do web pages, I will simply say 'yes', not 'I know someone who does'. I will create an email account for you to use to contact them (abuse it at your peril ) and I expect you to conduct yourself with them as if you were a part of my company. You will be billing me, and I will bill the client. I will be marking up the price a bit to cover the time I'll spend getting everything setup. Any questions about prices will be directed to me. I expect this to be the provision that most people have a problem with, and I do understand. However 'branding' is of the utmost importance to me and I have spent considerable resources ensuring that every service I offer has only my company's name on it. I use several 3rd-party software solutions to provide my services, and have taken great pains to ensure that all of them are able to be configured such that no one else's name is on them. This is the reason I'm looking for a long-term 'partner' rather than someone I can hand jobs off to. In exchange I will be actively looking to bring you business, and if my client is so happy with your product that they feel like recommending you to their friends, they will be recommending me, and I'll be using you. Obviously if I find out you're trying to sell services to my clients behind my back (and I will hear about it, I develop a very close relationship with each of them), you will never hear from me again (or at least, will never hear anything nice from me again).
7. Pricing. Although I'm looking to support larger businesses in the future, for the foreseeable future all of my clients will be small businesses, most of whom won't have an IT budget. I'll need to see examples of your 'good', 'better', 'best' pages, with pricing for each. Some clients may want the best you can do, but many of them won't have web pages at all, or see the point in spending money on them, so I'd like someone who also has several nice looking templates ready to go that they can just change around and bit and drop some text onto for a quick, cheap site.
8. Here's another potential deal-breaker for some of you. In the beginning absolutely no money will exchange hands until the site is finished to the satisfaction of the client. Once we have established a good working relationship I have no problem with half up-front or something like that, but until then I won't risk it. You may be thinking that if one of us has to take a risk, why does it have to be you. My answer is that if I don't come through with the money after you've finished the site, all you're out is the time it took you to put together that one site (obviously you won't be doing business with me anymore). However if you're the one who doesn't come through I lose whatever money I paid plus my reputation with my client. I also need to verify that the quality of your work is up to the standards of your portfolio. Sadly, too many people lie on their resumes. Additionally I've found that many times, if someone gets all of their money up-front, they don't bust their ass to get the job done because why should they, they've already been paid. Besides all of that, I can promise you that the time I've spent deciding how to go about this, and putting this ad together, is worth much more than trying to squeeze one free website out of someone.
9. In summation I kickass at what I do and am wholly dedicated to it, and am looking for someone with the same dedication to their business. I don't f**k around, I don't try to cheat people, I just want to provide the absolute best service to my clients, and part of that means finding a great web designer. I need someone who can put together some cheap, good looking pages as well as rock out some really fantastic ones. I make a lot of demands but in exchange I will provide some extra work you would not otherwise get, and we can all use extra work these days.
I don't want to spend tons of time on this so this will be a first-come, first-served situation. The first honest, decent person (or company) who meets my criteria gets my business until they prove otherwise.
I have two clients right now who are interested in getting a site put together, but because I didn't already have this in place I believe they are looking elsewhere. If I can get this taken care of soon I may already have a job for you.
If you're interested please PM me with some info about your business, links to some sites you've done, proof that you're the designer if the sites aren't signed, links to your 'good', 'better', 'best' offerings with pricing for each, and contact info. Posts in this thread will be ignored to check for reading comprehension. As stated before I don't want to spend a lot of time on this so if you don't hear back from me please know that I just didn't think your business would be a good fit but it's nothing personal.
I'm certain that I'm forgetting something so I may add something else later. It was a pretty crazy week for me so I didn't get much sleep and now I'm having trouble putting thoughts together. But hey, that means business is good, right?
1. I am not looking for someone who designs pages as a hobby. I definitely don't mind if you're a solo act but you must do this for a living. I don't want to have to worry that at some point you're going to run out of time or interest for your hobby and leave me with no one to go to when I need to.
2. You must be able to provide a reasonable time frame to get a site put together, and stick to it. For example, I was up until 7am Thursday morning getting a project finished, then woke up at 10am to deliver it. When I tell a client that I will have a project done at a specific time I will do everything in my power to make sure I deliver, and I'm looking for someone with that same dedication to their business. It's one of the things that keeps my clients coming back to me.
3. If you are not located in the US your English must be fluent and easy to understand. You must also be available and able to call US numbers during normal business hours here to speak to my clients about their needs. Your written communication must also read as if English is your first language.
4. You must have a portfolio of websites for me to take a look at. I will need to be able to visit the actual site, and you must have proof that you created the sites. I will be looking at the page source, so the code needs to be clean and easy to follow. I'm very particular about coding neatness and firmly believe that attention to detail in writing the code reflects your attention to detail to the site in general, and reflects your professionalism towards your business. In addition, if you were to disappear and my clients needed changes to their pages, I don't want to have to spend two hours just figuring out what you've done. Also, in this day and age, if all of your sites are still built with tables they have to be pretty spectacular for me to overlook it. I also don't mind if you've added 'Designed by <your business>' to the bottom of your pages, but don't want it at the bottom of the ones you do for me. Oh, and I don't like all-flash sites, so unless the client specifically asks for it, it's not what I'm looking for.
5. The websites will be hosted at a provider that I designate. I know everyone likes to make a little extra scratch reselling hosting, but I'm not going to risk losing access to the websites if you disappear. I will also handle registering domain names.
6. I will be subcontracting the job to you, and in the eyes of my clients you will be my employee. When my client asks if I do web pages, I will simply say 'yes', not 'I know someone who does'. I will create an email account for you to use to contact them (abuse it at your peril ) and I expect you to conduct yourself with them as if you were a part of my company. You will be billing me, and I will bill the client. I will be marking up the price a bit to cover the time I'll spend getting everything setup. Any questions about prices will be directed to me. I expect this to be the provision that most people have a problem with, and I do understand. However 'branding' is of the utmost importance to me and I have spent considerable resources ensuring that every service I offer has only my company's name on it. I use several 3rd-party software solutions to provide my services, and have taken great pains to ensure that all of them are able to be configured such that no one else's name is on them. This is the reason I'm looking for a long-term 'partner' rather than someone I can hand jobs off to. In exchange I will be actively looking to bring you business, and if my client is so happy with your product that they feel like recommending you to their friends, they will be recommending me, and I'll be using you. Obviously if I find out you're trying to sell services to my clients behind my back (and I will hear about it, I develop a very close relationship with each of them), you will never hear from me again (or at least, will never hear anything nice from me again).
7. Pricing. Although I'm looking to support larger businesses in the future, for the foreseeable future all of my clients will be small businesses, most of whom won't have an IT budget. I'll need to see examples of your 'good', 'better', 'best' pages, with pricing for each. Some clients may want the best you can do, but many of them won't have web pages at all, or see the point in spending money on them, so I'd like someone who also has several nice looking templates ready to go that they can just change around and bit and drop some text onto for a quick, cheap site.
8. Here's another potential deal-breaker for some of you. In the beginning absolutely no money will exchange hands until the site is finished to the satisfaction of the client. Once we have established a good working relationship I have no problem with half up-front or something like that, but until then I won't risk it. You may be thinking that if one of us has to take a risk, why does it have to be you. My answer is that if I don't come through with the money after you've finished the site, all you're out is the time it took you to put together that one site (obviously you won't be doing business with me anymore). However if you're the one who doesn't come through I lose whatever money I paid plus my reputation with my client. I also need to verify that the quality of your work is up to the standards of your portfolio. Sadly, too many people lie on their resumes. Additionally I've found that many times, if someone gets all of their money up-front, they don't bust their ass to get the job done because why should they, they've already been paid. Besides all of that, I can promise you that the time I've spent deciding how to go about this, and putting this ad together, is worth much more than trying to squeeze one free website out of someone.
9. In summation I kickass at what I do and am wholly dedicated to it, and am looking for someone with the same dedication to their business. I don't f**k around, I don't try to cheat people, I just want to provide the absolute best service to my clients, and part of that means finding a great web designer. I need someone who can put together some cheap, good looking pages as well as rock out some really fantastic ones. I make a lot of demands but in exchange I will provide some extra work you would not otherwise get, and we can all use extra work these days.
I don't want to spend tons of time on this so this will be a first-come, first-served situation. The first honest, decent person (or company) who meets my criteria gets my business until they prove otherwise.
I have two clients right now who are interested in getting a site put together, but because I didn't already have this in place I believe they are looking elsewhere. If I can get this taken care of soon I may already have a job for you.
If you're interested please PM me with some info about your business, links to some sites you've done, proof that you're the designer if the sites aren't signed, links to your 'good', 'better', 'best' offerings with pricing for each, and contact info. Posts in this thread will be ignored to check for reading comprehension. As stated before I don't want to spend a lot of time on this so if you don't hear back from me please know that I just didn't think your business would be a good fit but it's nothing personal.
I'm certain that I'm forgetting something so I may add something else later. It was a pretty crazy week for me so I didn't get much sleep and now I'm having trouble putting thoughts together. But hey, that means business is good, right?