Do you charge hourly or a fixed price?
Fixed price, set after a written scope, not hourly. You know the number before the work starts, and it doesn’t move unless the scope does.
What actually goes into a scope document?
Pages, motion, timeline and a fixed price, written down before any design work begins, so there’s a single reference point if a question comes up later.
That document comes out of a short discovery call first: thirty minutes on the brand, the audience and what the site has to do. The scope and quote follow from that conversation, not a generic package.
How an engagement actually runs
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| Discovery call | Thirty minutes on the brand, the audience and what the site has to do |
| Scope & quote | A written scope with pages, motion, timeline and a fixed price |
| Design & build | Design and development happen together, by me, on real working screens |
| Launch & handover | Performance, SEO and analytics are part of the build. You get the keys, the source and a walkthrough |
Why fixed price instead of hourly?
Because I’m the one estimating the work, so the estimating risk should sit with me, not you. Hourly billing puts that risk on the client instead, which is backwards.
I’m also the one who has to live inside whatever number I quote, since I’m a one person studio with no team to absorb a bad estimate. That’s a real incentive to scope carefully upfront rather than pad hours later, not a sales line.
What happens if I want changes after we start?
We talk about it against the written scope. Because the scope exists on paper before the build starts, a change request is a conversation about what moved, not a surprise on an invoice.
Next step
Want an actual number, not a range? Tell me about your project and I’ll have a proposal back within 24 hours.
About the author. Satyam Dubey is the founder of The Design Shop, a one person design and development studio. He has about 10 years in design and has shipped 50+ products.