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What are Your Areas of Expertise?

Planning

  • Consultancy Practices
    We'll guide you through various processes for the different aspects of your project to ensure we are planning according to your business needs and goals.
  • Project Management
    With a focus on task prioritization and next-step organization, we're well versed with setting and meeting project milestones.
  • Teamwork Operations
    We know how to identify suitable software tools and develop processes to improve collaboration, feedback and communication.

Development

  • Custom Coding
    We have senior programming experience with plugins and themes, including proficiency in key web languages (PHP, HTML, CSS, Javascript/jQuery, MySQL) and combining them innovatively and efficiently for WordPress. We use WP coding standards and code commenting as a matter of course.
  • Integrations
    We've configured and implemented numerous integration solutions depending on project needs, from mapping internal data between extensions, implementing 3rd party tools/services, or interfacing with external APIs.
  • Performance Optimization
    Speed matters for both user experience and SEO, and we've developed the knowledge and techniques to ensure super-fast high-scoring load times.

Design

  • Functional Design
    We have extensive experience identifying, testing and auditing plugins to be fit for purpose, integrating or modifying them as needed.
  • Frontend Design
    We enjoy creating matching thematic designs, applying design principles, complementary styling and web graphic skills.
  • User Friendly Interfaces
    We have a high focus on user experience, doing the complex work to make it simple for users to use in different contexts (visitors, members, admins etc.) including custom interfaces.

Marketing

  • Marketing Strategy
    We're comfortable with deep dives into overall business planning, brand identity, email sequences, advertising campaign setup, lead magnets and copywriting.
  • Content Collaboration
    We can assist with search engine optimized content planning, and optionally help the publishing process with proofreading, editing and responsive formatting.
  • Conversion Optimization
    We know that every step in your visitor's journey from prospect to customer is important and improving any step can multiply your bottom line.

Operations

  • Security Practices
    We have experience applying best practices to improve data protection by adding and hardening multiple security and backup layers.
  • Troubleshooting Support
    With developer, white label and freelance experience, we've spent plenty of time successfully debugging and problem-solving tricky technical issues.
  • Streamlining Operations
    We're at the ready when you're ready to grow, and can work with you to improve your existing features, workflows and standard operating procedures.

What is Your Project Completion Process?

We've developed a detailed and comprehensive process for covering the different aspects and challenges involved in completing a variety of projects. From design to content, from development to project management, from automation to branding, we have created our own unique methods for dealing with the intricacies of each.

Planning First

We take a "planning-first" approach to all website and software development projects. In our experience this can mean the difference between a "make" or "break" for a project,

  • Planning Benefits
    1. Keeping within Scope
      Too many changes in direction during a project build phase can become expensive fast, and can even derail a project entirely. Scoping out needs ahead of time helps limit these kind of drastic changes.
    2. More Accurate Estimates
      Estimating is hard. Agencies and developers that don't do detailed planning first can get it wrong by underestimating by a lot of hours and thus be out by thousands of dollars, causing potential headaches on both sides.
    3. Less Surprises
      The more we discover up front, the more sooner we can tailor solutions that match your business. The unexpected can be hard to account for and take a toll on both your wallet and enthusiasm.
    4. Marketing Strategy is Essential
      We've seen too many businesses fail even with all the right things in place, and we don't want that to happen to you. By planning the marketing along with the project, it means you can assign the right resources from the outset.
    5. Knowledge is Portable
      Of course we'd like to follow through and implement the plans we make for you, but are also realistic that that isn't always possible. The planning we do is a business asset that you can take with you into the future, so it's money and time well spent.
    6. Delivery is Flexible
      Having an overall picture of the project makes it easier to in prioritize different areas needing attention, and decide which tasks need to be done at what pace given your desired timeframes.

Overall Process

We like the process to be educational and fun, and want to be up front with how we work. In this spirit, we have an "Onboarding" sequence for potential new clients to familiarize you with the overall process. You will receive this via email when you sign up to get started. We've also decided to publish it in full online so that anyone can benefit from learning more about the process we've developed.

What is Your Pricing Model?

Digital Roadmap

Depending on your needs, the actual price of your project will vary considerably, so there really isn't a "ballpark" estimate figure we can give here. Like many agencies and designers, we've come to the conclusion that giving an estimate without a deeper dive into your needs simply isn't the best practice (see planning-first benefits above.)

Instead, we'll give you an estimate for your project based on a Digital Roadmap (aka Project Plan) tailored to your particular business. The cost for this initial project discovery and planning is $2000, which according to your  specific needs might be more focussed on design, development and/or marketing aspects.

This includes a review of your business plan and marketing strategy, as well as looking at your existing site's design, content, features and user flow. We'll also do an audit on your existing stack (platform, plugins, theme, etc.) and check the quality of any existing custom code and look for any urgent issues that need to be resolved.

Once we have a clearer picture of the current state of your online business, then based on your goals we'll identify what further needs to be created or improved. This planning phase is usually sufficient to get to an actionable statement of work for the scope of your needs. (For larger projects, we may need to do a second discovery phase to get a tighter estimate based on more details and testing.)

 

Work Phases

  • Build Phase
    This phase includes the bulk of the project's work. We'll discuss with you the timeframe in which you are wanting to complete the planned work (typical turnover is 1-3 months on average.) We'll then spread the total cost of the project over that timeframe to work out a monthly payment plan (paid at the start of each preceding month.).
  • Launch Phase
    In this phase we'll work with you to roll out any marketing campaigns according to a budget that works for you. Most of your marketing budget in this phase will go into any needed promotion or advertising, but there may be further need for copywriting and consulting services from us.
  • Operations Phase
    During this phase your focus will of course be on operations and the rate of work we need to do will usually drop considerably. As well as maintenance and updates, we'll also put some time into progressive enhancements each month that we've identified that were out of scope during the initial build phase.

Standard Work Rates

We base our time estimates on the statement of work for each project. We then multiply these by the hourly rate for these different types of work to give the total cost estimate. This means you get a fairer deal, rather than giving you a flat hourly rate for the whole project. It also means that when further work is needed, you have a better idea of how much it will cost. In the spirit of transparency, our varying hourly rates are listed below.

  • General Rate
    This includes general tasks like site setup, configuration, implementation, design, layout, content planning, publishing, maintenance etc. These are at a standard $60 / hour.
  • Custom Coding
    Whether it's a tweak to your website settings, an integration with a third party, a custom user interface, or a fully fledged custom application, we are efficient and proficient at these for $80 / hour.
  • Strategy/Copywriting
    This involves a deeper understanding of your business including understanding your target market, and involves a lot more thought and consideration for smaller outputs, at a rate of $100 / hour.
  • Troubleshooting
    These tend to be shorter but more intense bursts of debugging and testing to try to resolve priority issues. As such they are charged at a higher rate and tracked in 15 minute blocks at $100 / hour
  • Consulting Calls
    While we prefer to discuss most issues by email, so we can work in our own time, of course there's going to be times we need to get on a chat and brainstorm and plan things out together in more detail. These additional consults are at $120 / hour.