Where does the margin actually go?
Not in the initial negotiation, which is where everyone looks. It goes later, in three places:
- Endless rounds of revisions. If the quote does not say how many, the answer is as many as it takes.
- Unbilled waiting. The project stalls for a month waiting on copy, and the team stays committed with nothing to close.
- Invisible work. Meetings, coordination between vendors, sign-offs. Real, expensive, and absent from the quote.
What should every quote pin down?
| Element | What it prevents |
|---|---|
| Number of rounds of revisions | Revisions with no end |
| Number of pieces or unique designs | “While we are at it, add one more page” |
| What the client delivers, and when | Waiting that is not your fault |
| What counts as a scope change | The awkward conversation halfway through |
| How long the quote is valid | Accepting today’s price six months from now |
| What happens if the project stops | Holding a team indefinitely without billing |
Fixed price or hourly?
Fixed price when the scope is clear and bounded: the client buys certainty and you take on the estimation risk in exchange for margin. Hourly when the scope is exploratory and both sides know it.
The expensive mistake is a fixed price on a fuzzy scope, which combines the worst of both: the client expects predictability and you absorb all the uncertainty. If the scope is not clear, the honest way out is to quote a short, paid discovery first, and quote the build from that.
How do you handle changes without conflict?
By defining what a change is before one happens. The hard conversation is not “this costs more.” It is having that conversation for the first time halfway through the project, when the client has already assumed it was included.
What works is a mechanism agreed from the start: anything outside the written scope gets documented, quoted, and approved before it is built. That is not bureaucracy. It is what lets you say yes to changes without each one eating into the margin.
What if you work with a technical partner?
Then you need fixed prices by type of deliverable on your side too. Quoting your client while you negotiate each project with your vendor leaves you not knowing your margin until it is too late to adjust it.
We work with agencies on exactly that basis, so they can budget with a known margin and without an intermediate negotiation on every opportunity.