I’ve been a little lax on the blogging front this week. We’re crazy busy designing some new sites and that’s been my focus. Hopefully I’ll have a few to show you in the next few weeks.

I am taking some time out today to have lunch with Kal who’s down from NSW. I’m looking forward to it. It’s not often I get to catch up with colleagues or even people who know what I’m talking about half the time. I may even come back with a post idea.

Oh dear, I’ve just wasted half an hour drooling over the Apple iMacs. Which means I have to confess… I’m a PC user - for now.

This is the year I’ll be upgrading to an iMac and I am so darn excited. It was going to be later in the year but after chatting with a client who has one I’m not sure I can wait that long. Sigh.

This is probably one of the most asked questions by web designers. Do you provide fixed price quotes or estimates?

Many choose to go down the estimate route as often jobs can expand or go over budget significantly and leave the designer out of pocket. An estimate stops this by allowing you to add a clause such as the following:

These figures are an estimate, not a quote. They are based on information provided, and may be inappropriate if additional information is forthcoming, or job specifications change. It is valid for XX days.

This gives the designer a way to ensure that all work not covered, or for extra time spent changing a photo/colour/insert-element-here 20, times is compensated for. But is it the best approach?
For a long time in my web design career I used estimates. Last year I moved to fixed price quotes. Why?

• It’s simpler for both me and my clients. We both know where we stand and what we’re getting.
• It’s much easier to covert a prospect if they know exactly what they’re going to be paying for their site.

But how do you manage continual changes, additions of new features and so forth I hear you ask? Simple.

1. Define what your quotes do and don’t include.
2. Define how many updates, changes, re-designs etc you will do within that figure.
3. Communicate with your client. If they want something outside the scope of the quote explain it to them. Most clients are fine with this as long as you communicate with them clearly - before you do any additional work.

It’s up to us to manage the design project and our client’s expectations. I always use the “is it reasonable” test. I’m happy to be flexible, if a client decides the photo they wanted to use looks no good and would like it changed I’ll change it. If they ask me to change it 10 more times it’s no longer reasonable and outside of the scope of the quote. 99% of the clients I have dealt with would find that reasonable too. And those that don’t aren’t clients any more.

This way is not for everyone, I’ve been designing websites for long enough to be able to quote accurately, but I definitely think it’s the best approach.

Many years ago a client finally admitted to me, after 12 months, that they didn’t know what a URL was. I was horrified as I’d been referring to website addresses as URL’s the whole time and she obviously had no idea what I was on about!

Never again. From then on I made a decision to explain things as simply as possible. It’s paid off, one of the most frequent comments I get from clients and prospects alike is my ability to explain things to them in a clear, easy to understand manner. Recently I’ve had a number of people ask me to explain something they were told by another web designer or marketer. When being told what the original person said I’m usually dumbfounded that they would assume what they said would make sense to the average person.

Our role is to walk our clients and prospects through the complex area of web design and online business. It is up to us to make sure what we say is being understood by those we say it to.

Happy New Year!

Ok I’m back and ready to rock and roll. One of my new years resolutions is to blog more - fingers crossed eh. I have a semi completed post about being remarkable and potato salad - I should have that to you tomorrow.

May 2007 be all that you want it to be.

I had hoped to blog more this week but have been so busy trying to get things finished for clients before the Christmas break I didn’t have a chance. My New Years resolution will be to blog more regularly.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for reading my blog and for all the wonderful feedback and comments you’ve given me. Have a great Christmas and New Year!

I’m taking a break and will be back on January 2 2007. Yup, no rest for the wicked.

Looks like I better jump on the bandwagon. Thanks Kim. Ok, so 5 things you don’t know about me:

1. In the offline world I’m known as “mouth of the south”. Yeah, yeah, apparently I talk a lot.
2. I once crashed my mum’s car driving out of a panel beaters. I was there picking up her car which had just been repaired from the last time I crashed it. No, she has not let me drive her car since.
3. I love fonts almost as much as I love shoes and handbags.
4. My hero is Nelson Mandela.
5. I designed the Clientside SEM website for Scott and Aaron.

Who’s next: Peter Da Vanzo, Dave Child, Scottie Claiborne, Diane Vigil and Bill Slawski.