Hi. My name is J. Austin Hughey and I am the President and Chief Architect of Ionex Interactive, a web-services firm based in San Marcos, TX.
A potential client has recently approached my firm requesting a proposal for a site to be developed. We would prefer to hire individuals (not other companies or firms) to do portions of the work, allowing us the flexibility we need to continue with our own endeavors while making you more profitable.
This will be some relatively easy work, especially for a talented individual.
A non-disclosure, non-contact and non-compete agreement will be required for details on this project and for us to send you an RFP with all the details, but without getting too far into it, I can tell you the following:
Basic Description
We need a talented creative to develop a logo and site layout based on a simple color scheme and information about demographics and psychographics of a particular target audience. Some work in flash would be nice, but it isn’t required.
The logo and layout will need to be submitted to us to obtain client approval. We’ll accept either Photoshop PSD format, or Fireworks PNG format, with all the layers separated and editable. We may ask you to make some changes, or make a few changes ourselves, before submitting to the client for approval.
Once the client has approved the logo and layout, you’ll be responsible for optimizing individual image elements and formatting a layout, preferably based in CSS tableless design, for one HTML page. At a minimum it must be tested in IE7, Firefox2, and Safari. Opera is nice if you can test it there, but not required. It needs to render properly in all browsers. Some minor license is granted to change elements from the layout comp in order to get it to render correctly. Also, overflow of text will need to be tested (throw at least like 15 paragraphs of Lorem Ipsum in there to make sure nothing breaks).
Turnaround
We’d be looking for a relatively quick turn-around, but not so fast that it prevents you from doing good work. We’re not looking for anything award-winning (though it would be nice), but it must be aesthetically pleasing and better than average. We’re thinking something something like 2 weeks, but we’re flexible.
Payment (The Good Stuff!)
We don’t expect you to take things on faith alone. Before we ask you to do any work at all, we’ll secure 50% of your fee from the client up-front, or the job doesn’t start, period. Once we’ve secured your 50%, you’ll be paid that 50% to get started. At that point you’ll have a reasonable deadline that we’ll discuss to create the necessary work. The client may ask for some changes upon finishing, at which point you’ll be asked to complete those changes (so you’ll need to budget in some cost for up to two revisions - more than that and we’ll bill them extra on your behalf.)
When we receive your finished product, we will add our own code and elements to it, then release the finished product to the client. At that point they have 30 days to pay the remaining balance, and as soon as we’re paid, we will pay you the remaining 50%.
So for example, let’s say your fee is $500 bucks. We charge the client $250 plus our other costs for starting the project and pay you $250. Two weeks later, you finish your work, and we continue with the rest of it, which takes us, say, 4 weeks. At that point we turn it into the client and, assuming they pay their bills on time, pay you the remaining $250 within 30 days. So you made $500 bucks in two and a half months for about three collective days worth of work.
About the Legal Agreements I Mentioned…
I’m sure you have concerns about these agreements. Allow me to explain them in layman’s terms.
Non-Disclosure
Basically this just says you won’t discuss the details of the project with anyone. You can mention you’re working with Ionex Interactive on a project, but beyond that you can’t go into much else.
Non-Contact
This just says you won’t contact our client behind our back or otherwise. If we want you to talk to them directly, we’ll arrange a teleconference or some other method of direct communication. In most cases, this is totally unnecessary.
Non-Compete
This doesn’t mean for the rest of your life. It’s a supplement to the one above; it basically says you won’t try to offer the client the same services as us (you won’t compete with us over the same client and project). Anything else is pretty-much fair game.
What to do If You’re Interested
Send me an e-mail at info@ionexinteractive.com. I’ll forward you a copy of the legal agreements mentioned above for you to sign and fax or e-mail back to me. Then we’ll get on the phone and I’ll fill you in on all the details, as well as send you a copy of the formal RFP. You’ll need to supply me with a firm proposal for cost on developing the above logo and layout.
Feel free to ask any questions you may have!
Thank you very much for your time. I hope to hear from the talented individuals in this community quite soon!
