Why do we do web site design annual contracts?
The answer is simple: we want to stay in business.
Annual contracts provide measurable revenue projections.
They protect against the whims of the economy.
If your web developer works on a project basis only, we’ll guarantee something: either you, or they, will change that practice. Either they will go to a contract basis to guarantee annual revenue per “client”, or you will move to a survivor of the marketplace at the next downturn in an emergency basis.
We’ve been in business over 20 years. In that time, there have been at least three “web designer/developer” extinction events:
The “Dot-Com” crash of 2000;
The Economic Struggle post 9/11; and
The Financial Crisis of 2007-08.
Each time, organizations took a conservative approach with both their IT and their marketing budgets, and that slammed the web development industry. Those web developers that worked on a “project” basis saw those projects dry up, and eventually they disappeared. There are hardly ANY firms out there from the time we first began. (We are not sure that is really a bragging point or not.)
But if you, the client, want a web partner that will be around next year, and the following year, then you will need to work on an annual revenue basis with that web partner. And that requires a contract, if for nothing more than to stipulate a beginning and an ending of the arrangement. Otherwise, you’ll have to keep looking for a new partner every time you have needs beyond your capabilities.