OK you’ve had your website quoted, paid the web developer and hired them to create your new website. So why do they keep asking you for more money?
After 25 years in the business I’d say that one of the primary reasons job quotes go up (after the quote has been finalized) is due to changing Job Specs. Sometimes clients ask for additional features that were not in the original quote and they don’t realize those add-ons are going to cost money. ALSO, often the web development team is guilty of NOT telling a client when changes will cost extra. Just keep in mind that each item or “function” on a website requires some amount of labor to implement, even if it’s a minor thing like changing some text on the site. We recently developed a site for someone and they opted to write their own text…which means they submitted the text to us for the website in a digital file that was supposed to be “ready to go” (and that text should have been proofed before they gave it to me). Unfortunetly they hadn’t proofed it and didn’t notice the excessive typos until AFTER we had programmed the web site and inserted the text (and done all the “behind the scenes” things that go with that, such as creating the CSS or the cascading style sheet…the instructions in the programming that tell the site how to display the text).
The most frustrating aspect of this for everyone involved is this: to the client a change may look very simple but for the development team, even a simple change may take multiple steps to implement, which takes time and costs money. For smaller changes my company tends to let a few of those changes go before we start talking about money…but the problem with that is by the time we bring up money to a client they’ve forgotton about all the other little changes we’ve made (that may have added up to significant lost time). To the client it may seem that we’re being unreasonable to ask for additional money but to the developer, we’re losing money on the job and getting frustrated at the same time. The best thing to do is to at least TRY to make sure you’re ready to move forward before signing off on a prior development stage…and recognize that EVEN THE BEST DEVELOPMENT TEAM is going to require some input from you, the client. I often get the feeling that a client is irritated that i can’t just take the ball and run with it without any input from them but that’s not logical. Any web developer is going to need to talk about your goals & strategy, get your product photos and related information, get the hosting and DNS registration information from you as well as many other things that are required to start a website (for more information on what’s required to start a website job please see my blog called Website Checklist – What do I do after I hire someone to develop our website?).
Of course it IS possible that the web development team mis-quoted the job to begin with and if that’s the case, unless there are mitigating circumstances, it is their responsibily to deliver a website that has all the features and functionality included in the written quote. That is one reason it’s SO IMPORTANT to make sure all the aspects of your website are listed individually in your initial quote and on your opening invoice or contract. If anything is missing don’t take it for granted that the item is included in your job, rather ask the development team to redo the quote or contract so no one has to wonder about that halfway through the project. I admit, if you are not super famliar with all the intricicies of web development you might not think of something that should be in your quote, so to avoid that take a minute to read my blog (that will help), make sure you ask who’s responsible to pay for stock or custom photography, videos, music (gag), ancillary programming (templates, e-commerce software, Paypal functionalitly and programming time to integrate that into your site, copywriting, etc. And as a final safety net…ASK your development team if anything has been left out of your quote that you might have to eventually pay for. And be sure and ask that question in an email and get a written response from the developer that you can keep in your files. When there are a lot of details involved people can forget…having those details fully spelled out in a quote or contract is one of the best ways to avoid future nighmares.
I think it goes without saying, but I’ll say it just to be sure you leave this article with the most important tid bit firmly in mind…it’s more expensive to make changes to a website AFTER the programming stage is done than before, so do your best to make sure all the various aspects are ready to go before telling your team it’s ok to start the next phase. And if for some reason something is overlooked, don’t be surprised if someone asks you for a little more money.
