Question 1

What does this typically cost?

Accepted Answer

Most builds land between $4K and $12K. Simpler tools — a custom CRM, a booking system, a member portal — usually come in around $4–6K. More involved builds with payments, multiple integrations, or custom dashboards run $8–12K. If your project is genuinely outside that range, I'll tell you on the first call, not at proposal stage. No surprise quotes.

Question 2

What happens if it takes longer than 30 days?

Accepted Answer

The 30-day timeline is built into the scope. If I miss it because of something on my end, the overage is on me, not you. If we hit week three and you want to add features that push it past 30 days, I'll tell you upfront what that costs and you decide. The thing I won't do is the slow-creep, surprise-invoice game most dev shops play. Fixed scope, fixed price, fixed timeline — written down before we start.

Question 3

Do I own the code when we're done?

Accepted Answer

Yes. 100%. The code, the database, the hosting accounts — all yours, in your GitHub, on your domain. I'll hand you keys to everything on day 30. You can fire me tomorrow and keep running the software forever. That's the whole point of custom — you're not renting, you're owning.

Question 4

What if I need changes after launch?

Accepted Answer

Two options. You can grab my "Stak Care" plan ($300–800/month depending on scope) which covers hosting, small updates, and a few hours of dev time each month. Or you can pay hourly when you need something, no retainer. Most clients start with hourly and roll into Stak Care once they realize how often they want small tweaks. Either way, I'm a Slack message away — no ticketing portals, no support queues.

Question 5

How is this different from hiring a developer on Upwork?

Accepted Answer

I've watched a lot of small business owners get burned by this exact thing. The pattern is always the same: cheap upfront, ghosted at week four, half-built code nobody else can pick up. The difference is twofold. First, I ran a $75M construction business before I ever wrote production code — I think about your business like an operator, not just a coder. Second, you're talking to the person who's actually building it, not an account manager who'll hand it off to someone you'll never meet. If something breaks at midnight, you text me. That's it.

Question 6

How is this different from off-the-shelf software like Mindbody or Squarespace?

Accepted Answer

Off-the-shelf software is great until your business starts doing something the software wasn't built for. Then you're paying $300/month to fight a tool that almost does what you need. Custom software does exactly what you need, in exactly your workflow, with no monthly per-user fees that scale with your success. The rough rule: if you're spending more than $500/month on SaaS tools that are 70% right, custom usually pays itself back in 12–18 months.

Question 7

What if we start and it's not the right fit?

Accepted Answer

The first 15-minute call costs nothing. After that, before any code gets written, I send a scoped proposal with the full plan. If at that point you decide it's not the right fit, no harm done. Once we kick off, there's a 50% deposit and a 50% balance at launch. I've never had a project not launch — but if something catastrophic happened on my end, you'd get the deposit back. That's in writing.

Question 8

Who's actually doing the work?

Accepted Answer

Me. I'm the developer, the designer, and the project manager. For larger builds I occasionally bring in a trusted contractor for specific pieces (usually mobile or a specific integration), but I'm always the point of contact and I'm always the one writing the core code. You won't get handed off to a junior. You won't be talking to someone in a different time zone at midnight. You get me, directly, for the whole project.

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