A fixed scope agreed in writing before anything gets coded. You approve the design before the build, and the working product before launch. At handoff it is yours: source, accounts, runbook.
A price, and a promise that the thing in your head and the thing in theirs were the same thing. No way to check, because the only version anyone could see was a conversation.
Which is a number with no end. You were asked to trust the meter, and the meter only ever goes one way.
The work you wanted the software to do is still being done by you, in a spreadsheet you are afraid to change.
We decide exactly what gets built, in writing, before a line of code exists. You get a written scope with a fixed price and dated milestones. If it is not on that list, it is not in the build, and adding it is a conversation rather than a surprise.
You approve the design before the build starts, and the working product before it launches. Two approval gates, both yours, both in writing. Nothing gets built on an assumption nobody checked.
At handoff you get the source, the accounts in your name, and a one-page runbook that says how to run it and what to do when it breaks. If you never speak to me again, the thing still works and somebody else can pick it up.
If it can be done sooner, you will have it sooner. The date on the scope is the latest it will be, not the earliest.
I have spent twenty years building software, most of it for companies where breaking something costs real money.
In one two-month stretch this year I built and shipped six products on my own, something like a thousand commits, give or take. One of them went into production at a university. Another is the system that runs my own business: clients, tasks, content and analytics, all of it software I wrote.
That matters here for one reason. I know which corners are safe to cut on a small business's budget and which ones quietly cost you a weekend later. The person you talk to is the person writing the code, and you are never billed for something you have not approved.
The number is fixed in your written proposal before any work begins. Pay it up front, or split it into two payments, one at the start and one at handoff, which costs 10% more than paying up front.
The call is $100 for 30 minutes, no pitch, and it comes off your price if you go ahead. You leave with a scope you can take to anyone, including somebody else.
No. Everything can happen by email, start to finish. If you would rather talk, the call is there.
That is the first thing we work out together. Plenty of businesses are better served by a good website first, and if that is you, I will say so, even though it is the smaller project.
Yes. The accounts are yours and the custom work transfers to you once it is paid for. Any existing tools or outside licenses are named on the scope.
Then you may not need me. If you want a second read on a scope or a quote before you sign it, that is what the call is for.