Hey everyone, I'm excited to share that I'm working with my first client! They are a local event planning company from my (very small) town. They wanted a simple homepage with a hero section, services, an "About Us" section, and a contact form. I used Figma to design it and Elementor to build it.
Here's the situation: The "About Us" section was supposed to be a simple two-column row with a short paragraph and a picture of the owner. However, when the owner finally decided on the text, he sent me 10 paragraphs detailing his origin story, motivations, and more. He wants to include all of it.
Now, I'm not a design expert, but I’m pretty sure there’s no way to fit all that info on a homepage. So, I suggested creating a new "Our History" page where I could post the full text with some images and a nice design. He could go all out and include as much as he wants (I could tell he loves talking about himself, so I pitched this idea to get him on board with a new page).
My issue now is figuring out how much to charge for this addition. Initially, I charged $200 for the design and another $200 for the development, plus a small monthly maintenance fee. Would you charge another $200 + $200 for the design and development of the new "Our History"/"About Us" page? Or how would you approach this? I’m just starting out and don’t have much reputation yet, so I’m worried the client might push back if I charge the same as I did for the first page, basically doubling the price.
Just looking for some insight from more experienced developers!
I would build it to the agreed upon specifications. If they request more, get it in writing and charge more.
Am sure you must have clear and concise draft on sow with what all you shall do and deliver in your time lines. If you are putting extra time over the agreed sow that is a project change request and you need to charge extra for the same. Probably you can cut down your cost to half of it and inform client with proper reason to make him understand on the CR. This should help.
Easy fix.
Just put the ten paragraphs in the About us. Don’t rock the boat with him. It’s just text you can copy and paste in by copying the current elements.
Get more images from him for it and do Image on left, paragraph on right and under, then swap that for the next paragraph. Image on right and text on left and under. Repeat. He asked for it so if it looks shit after that it’s on him.
You have a signed contract that outlines what you were doing and mentions that anything else is extra and stating you will invoice at $x/hour for extra’s, right?
Honestly if he seems like a flaky client just do the work and invoice him for your extra time, but make sure to tell him before you start, that it’s not a part of your existing agreement and you will invoice him at $x/hour
If you’re “not a design expert” you shouldn’t be offering professional design services.
Did your contract spell out the exact scope of work? Using a page builder, the extra content would only take a short time. Sometimes you have to take the hit and chalk it up to a lesson learned.
Put a short portion of the origin story on the homepage with a read more button that links to the full story. Learn to be specific when you scope the work. Also, “I’m not a design expert” is problematic, maybe take 6 months to become proficient and then start taking on jobs… another designer/developer team may have to fix your mistakes.
$200 for an extra page containing nothing but a few paragraphs of text and possibly an entire mate or two! And from a self confessed ‘non designer’. I have my reservations and I’m not even the client…
Assuming the rest of the site layout and design have already been completed judging from other details in your post, I honestly don’t see how you can charge for this ‘extra page’ as it would literally take minutes to know up.
Ok, what I would do. I would tell them that you have agreed upon a simple one page design but adding 10 paragraphs would mess up the design. I would then tell them that you’ll make them a favor and add a subpage, in your case a history page, and voilà, you have a site that you will be able to expand. That will give them a chance to think about things that they may add as subpages and extra chargeable work for you.
>Here’s the situation: The “About Us” section was supposed to be a simple two-column row with a short paragraph and a picture of the owner. However, when the owner finally decided on the text, he sent me 10 paragraphs detailing his origin story, motivations, and more. He wants to include all of it.
Why did it need to even be two columns for something like that? The text should wrap around the image, if that’s all there is on that page. That doesn’t sound very editable-friendly to me. The client should be able to put a single word or an entire life-story on that page at their heart’s content, without it affecting you. It’s literally a 5 second copy and paste matter.
Although things need to be discussed if a client strays off the SOW, in this case, I think you incorrectly approached the design of that specific page. I don’t want to give you a hard time, but I think you should look into the text-wrapping avenue. It shouldn’t be two columns, imo, if there is nothing else that’s going to occupy that respective column with the image.
In case you don’t know what I am talking about, here is a link:
[https://i.sstatic.net/nV97r.jpg](https://i.sstatic.net/nV97r.jpg)
The image can simply expand to 100% width, depending on whatever kind of “breakpoint” (via flexbox, media-query, whatever) you feel like setting for it, so that way the text collapses underneath it neatly (for responsive purposes). Or… the image shrinks, like this: [https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dec0d775605ee7848f9f1e6/94eaeab3-f228-49d4-ab04-685ab4f68942/Website+Land.jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dec0d775605ee7848f9f1e6/94eaeab3-f228-49d4-ab04-685ab4f68942/Website+Land.jpg)
P.S. this is really a matter of you not understanding basic html/css. This is not a wordpress matter, imo. Nor would I bill a client extra, in good faith, for bad design choices on your part. But I guess if they fell for the trap and were lead to believe it’s their problem, then whatever I guess. Everyone else gave you feedback on that part.
Make both versions, make sure the About us page looks better, print screen them, send them to him, and tell him that the new page, as it was outside of the original scope, will cost an extra $50 if he’d like it to be implemented.
You charged… $400? for the design and development of a website?
“Client Wants More Than We Initially Agreed On. What Would You Do?”
A contract.
I go above and beyond for my first commercial client (b2b ecommerce). spend way to much time with them yet I consistently use them to bring new relationships. I give them white glove service and very good pricing. but if I hadn’t leveraged that relationship to build a reputation with my suppliers I don’t know where I’d be.
I know it is a very different situation but the point is that, for one they gave you a shot not only to build the site but to take your business from an idea to a reality. my advice would be to do extra for them without them walking all over you. they know you need to make money but deliver above and beyond, earn the business and if you leverage this to get your next client it will be well worth it
You are very lucky to find such clients.
I build full Ecommerce websites for $200.
If I get that amount for such simple website, I would do the page for free.
I’m confused why you’re charging to build and design a website if you’re “no design expert.”
You could charge him more but if it’s your first client…and your charging such a low amount (not sure where you are) and they have committed to a monthly fee, maybe just give it to them so you can get the job done and add it to your portfolio.
I see that you suggested the new page. He may coke back and say well you suggested it rather than him wanting it.
People don’t understand how things fit in spaces. Main menus are the worst. I can’t count how many times people want to add more to the main menu and think it can fit
I’d say do tell him the charges but do it for free, in return, leave your backlink in footer so you can get more clients.
Add it as paragraphs just as originally planned. Have a look yourself and let client have a look. If its ok its ok and you dont charge any extra, but if it looks bad you suggest to move it to a seperate page (might also be better før seo, onepagers are shit for seo) and tell them that you have to charge a bit extra. Say $100
One big issue, you aren’t charging enough.
If it’s 5+ pages you should be sitting well into a few thousand as you are spending your time to do this. Idk about you but I don’t want to make $10 an hour by the time the projects done. I’d rather be at $100+. Time is valuable and so is your skillset.