Let's Be Brutally Honest About Operations and Pricing for Web Agencies - ConvergeSE 2014

Let's face it—most of us running web shops did not study business. We just love building things, so we started companies where we could build on our own terms. Unfortunately, being a great builder of web things does not necessarily equip us to make sound business decisions.
Co-managing Sparkbox the past five years, I've made plenty of mistakes. From an operations and pricing perspective, let's discuss what didn't work and what is working for us at Sparkbox. We'll talk about different pricing strategies, work estimates, and how we run business operations. My hope is that you can learn from our mistakes—and our successes.
This will be a brutally honest discussion, so please come armed with questions.

Transcript

1. Rob Harr Let's Be Brutally Honest About Operations and 
 Pricing for Web Agencies @robertharr
2. Hello!!
5. I AM NOT A LAWYER! This is really small print that Rob Harr is not a lawyer. All of the things that he says should be checked with an actual lawyer who know what the heck they are doing. This is not a time that I would suggest that you “Better call Saul”.
6. Let’s talk about you.
7. Let’s talk about money. $$$$$$
8. Let's Be Brutally Honest About Operations and 
 Pricing for Web Agencies HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
9. Writing the codes.
10. FORGE
11. Employee #1
12. Failure?
16. Q1 2014
17. Q2 2014??
18. Let's Be Brutally Honest About Operations and 
 Pricing for Web Agencies Operations
19. What is operations?
21. Figure out what you make, then spend less than that!
23. It is all about cash flow.
24. Most of our costs are fairly consistent and predictable.
25. Micro-Cash flow
28. Freedom is not free
29. 6 months
30. Business Forecasting
32. People who work on the business People who work in the business
33. Ben Rob Jeremy Tarr Ethan Adam Ryan Ryann JMack Patrick Emily Marshall Philip Mike Dom Jody Drew Jän Neil
34. Employee Expectations
35. Contractors vs Employees
36. It is about the journey.
38. Let's Be Brutally Honest About Operations and 
 Pricing for Web Agencies Pricing
39. Fixed Pricing
40. Hourly Pricing
41. Value Pricing
42. There is no right answer!
44. Hourly
45. Initial Engagements
46. $165
47. Collaborative Pricing
49. 20% Deposit
50. Weekly invoices
51. Work for hire.
52. Luck smells like perspiration.
54. Let's Be Brutally Honest About Operations and 
 Pricing for Web Agencies SOME GOOD IDEAS
55. Know your terms.
56. Find a Geoff.
57. Get a line of credit before you need it.
58. Get professional help!
59. Know your legal documents.
60. http://msabundle.com/
61. Find some owner friends.
62. Train your clients to think about your pricing model.
63. Have difficult conversations about budgets.
64. Decide as a team what parts of a project should be experimented with.
65. Some of the people you hire will leave.
66. Know your price multiplier.
67. Track your time.
68. Increase your rates.
69. Find better clients.
70. Plan for taxes all year long.
71. Save your cash.
72. There are no shortcuts.
73. Let's Be Brutally Honest About Operations and 
 Pricing for Web Agencies WHAT NOT TO DO
74. Discounts for early payment.
75. Negotiate your rates.
76. Negotiate your rates. Maybe?
77. Be afraid to fire clients.
78. Expect your clients to grow with you.
79. Ignore taxes until tax time.
80. Let's Be Brutally Honest About Operations and 
 Pricing for Web Agencies WRAP IT UP
81. No one should be able to dictate the terms in which you do business.
82. Rob’s two basic rules for happiness in business:
83. Rule 1:
    Life is too short to work with people you hate.
84. Rule 2:
    If you ever become annoyed by a client, it is only because you are not charging them enough money.
85. The real secret to what little success we have had at Sparkbox.
86. Confidence
87. Questions?
88. THANKS! @robertharr rob@heysparkbox.com