Purpose of this training: pull back the curtains and show the inside of this $75,000 web design project so you’ll have a better understanding and feel more confident to charge higher prices

Project: Pirate Ship

Taking a look at the site…

• A lot of custom graphics, interactions and calculators, etc.
• Custom emojis for the brand
• Very unique brand and unique ideas for the site = able to charge more the site

How Payton found the client

• Had a client book a strategy call via the Calendly integration on Payton’s site
• Prospect was super chill, laid back, didn’t seem like the business/CEO type
• So Payton was caught off guard when he realized how massive of a company Pirate Ship is!
• Client was referred by a contact who Payton had networked with about Webflow
• Took a few calls to finalize the agreement, drafted by their attorney, so Payton had his own attorney review their contract
• With higher level caliber clients means there are higher expectations and more legal processes

Timeline

• First call July 21
• Contract signed July 28
• Deadline of launching November 1
• Ended launching January 25

Why $75,000?

• Risk - Client wanted someone they could trust with their site, and the price tag reflected that

• Complexity - Went from custom design in Figma to implementation, included animated video assets, responsiveness, full CMS setup, many integrations

• Work dynamic expectations - Pait Pro team was leading design and development. However, there was also the client, an agency who had originally helped design the website and branding. Then here was a third team member who created all the media assets. In reality, working with four different teams and four different time zones was difficult to navigate who was doing what.

• Cheap compared to website revenue - Client is doing millions in revenue on their site every month so this is a small amount comparatively 

Mistakes - they can be costly!

• Too many cooks in the kitchen

• Multiple teams and agencies lead to confusion - lesson learned: you need one person calling the final shots on the project
• Also need to lock down the website so not having to redo any work if someone is coming in and making changes

• Missed major clarifications

• Went back and forth on how the responsiveness should be approached, need to clarify early on, don’t assume

• Assets took forever

• Even though we set hard expectations, they weren’t finalized until way too late
• Big back and forth between the teams: “I can’t finish the website until I know what the assets look like” and “I can’t finish the assets until I know what the website looks like”
• Recommendation for next time: be proactive with the client and let them know once the deadline for content are missed, it will also push back the deadline for the website 

• Too much time on homepage (lost pace early on)

• Two months in we hadn’t started the rest of the pages
• Make sure on larger scale projects that you’re doing everything you can to stay on pace

How much did Payton make?

• $75,000 Total Paid
• -$37,000 Design and Development
• - $6,000 Project Management
• $32,000 Profit = $5,300 per month

Lessons learned

• Higher ticket client does not equal better client
• Once you go over $15k, it gets much more complicated and demanding
• Larger clients are often slower moving
• Project never moves as fast as you think
• A great designer can foresee issues long before they happen
• Just because you outsource or delegate, does not mean you can just check out
• If you have to take full responsibility for the outcome, you should have full control of the project
• Working in a new industry or with new tools with cost you extra unforeseen time - Another reason to niche down as a web designer!

Wrapping up

• With all that said, Payton and his team were able to finish the site
• Things didn’t leave off on as good of a note as he’d like, but at the end of the day, everything worked out for the client and the rest of the team