Practicing a Transparent Business Ethic

A Direct, Mutually Beneficial Relationship

Wildflower takes pride in reaching any clients’ goal efficiently, without downgrading the quality of a solution. But there are usually different ways of achieving those goals, and I communicate those to the best of my ability. And then I do my best to provide accurate estimates for how long each option would take, as well as my personal recommendations based on what I know about the circumstances.

Once we collectively decide on a strategy for how to achieve a goal, then I’m off to do the work. As I do the work, if we agree on “time and materials,” I keep a daily updated tally on a shared Google spreadsheet of the time I spend on that project reaching that goal, with general notes about how every hour is spent.

It’s important for me that my clients understand everything they’re getting billed for. They can access that spreadsheet at any given moment, and they can ask me about anything they don’t fully understand on it. That sheet is, in turn, used to create the invoices I ultimately send to my clients for billing.

I prefer this system for new and on-going projects, but I can also write up longer term scopes and work orders if the client prefers that instead for larger projects. Generally those take a decent amount of time to create, require, at times, multiple question and answer sessions, and are often “padded” just in case the original scope doesn’t cover all the details that end up surfacing throughout the project.

I do not feel comfortable “overcharging” clients, which is also why Wildflower does not charge any retainer costs, but in long-term scopes that’s the only way to prevent undercharging, which could lead to my business failing.

I vastly prefer the time & materials process because it fosters a sense of trust, I get paid exactly for the work I put into a project, and I feel more like I’m a real part of the team vs. a temporary “gun for hire.”