tedster - 9:31 pm on Feb 12, 2003 (gmt 0)

Should we maybe start from an intial meeting to a consulting fee before we do any work?

That's the direction we've been going. Although there are still exceptions, I'd say at least 70% of our contracts now begin as paid consultants doing what we call a "feasability study" or "web market research". We need to be paid for our time and knowledge, which we use studying the market segment and doing the keyword research. These are steps we must take in order to create design mock-ups or a formal presentation.

For their consulting fee, the client gets valuable information which they can always use, even if they decide to go with a different developer - such as the president's nephew ;)

We just got tired of having our brains picked. Heck, we realized that we can even offer an "informational interview" for a fee - a legitimized brain picking session!

It also helps us make sure that we are a good fit with the client before we enter into a full contract. That's been a hard learned lesson, but we are getting the hang of it. Those initial consulting periods are very useful, and either party can walk away from a further deal without creating an upset for the other.