Process Overview
A Personal Touch
Bee Zen Web Design is owned and operated by lead developer John Arcadian. For most projects we undertake, we work one on one with the client, with the majority of work being performed by John. For larger projects with more in-depth needs, we work with various contractors and freelancers brought on as needed to fulfill specific roles or requirements.
Discovery Phase
Our process always starts with discovery, meeting and working with potential clients to understand their goals and capabilities and determine exactly how we can help. During this phase, clients meet with John who takes the outline of the project and helps them build a vision to bring it to life.
Scope of Work and Contract
As we determine and set out the exact project requirements, we’ll make suggestions and provide a broad scope of work that puts in writing what we think it will take to fulfill the project successfully. Once the generals are agreed upon, Bee Zen will provide a contract that covers everyone involved and makes sure we have the right solution for you. Payment terms will be declared in the contract, but we usually work with 1/2 or 1/3 up front and the rest upon completion or at set milestones.
Initial Phase
As we begin, we’ll start putting together the skeleton of your project with stock art and frameworks or mockups, while art and content assets are being developed. We will create a development site on a server we maintain and do most all of the work there. If Bee Zen is contracted to create content, we’ll work with content creators during this phase to produce initial assets
Full Development Phase
As more assets and structures are created, Bee Zen will build out structures, pages, code, and custom solutions for you. We’ll check in and communicate so that you know how the work is progressing and have ample opportunities for feedback. If we need more resources or art during this phase, we’ll work with you to acquire it to make sure your site shines.
Final Phase/Transfer
Once we’ve completed work on the site and gotten client approval, final payment will be delivered. We will package and transfer the site to your server, or if we are hosting it for you, we will enlivenate the site for the public. We will make sure everything is set up and working as expected and often work in a few extra retainer hours to perform after launch operations as needed.
Always Adaptable
Th process outlined above is what works for the majority of our clients on most small to medium sized sites, but every project is different and requires a unique touch. Whatever your project requires, know that we will make sure to modify the process and provide you the exact right option to fit your needs. For many of our clients we have worked out retainers to provide ongoing support, created sites that allow them to do the majority of the content work, or partnered with other companies and organizations to provide exactly what was needed.
General Work Schedule
Working Hours
Tech work often requires a flexible schedule to make sure tasks occur when they have the least impact. We maintain a variable schedule but try to follow the general hours. We are located in Columbus, Ohio and the Eastern American Time Zone, but we work with clients from multiple time zones and countries and can schedule to make accommodations.
Sundays – Offline
Mondays – 9am to 5pm eastern
Tuesdays – 10am to 5pm eastern
Wednesdays – 9am to 5pm eastern
Thursdays – 10am to 6pm eastern
Fridays – 9am to 3pm eastern
Saturdays – Offline
Emergencies and Night Work
When there are emergencies and issues with outages, we can be reached outside of regular hours and will jump into fixing any emergency issues we can find. When a project requires an off hour server transfer or work to coincide with down time on the site, we’ll schedule night work beforehand and modify that week’s schedule as needed.
Payment Policies
Retainer
We are available for retainer work, and can work out a refilling or one-time retainer to make sure you have tech staff when needed. For retainer work, we generally provide updates and modifications to sites we created, ensure you have technical expertise and support continuously, and provide site monitoring and maintenance. Retainer work is still subject to our general schedule.
Longer Term Contracting
If we undertake longer term contracting, we can work out a retainer or a more full-time operation on-site at your location, depending on the policies and procedures of the company we are contracting with. We are happy to talk with interested companies about long-term dedicated contracts and can work our other operations and projects around them.
Payment Gateways And Procedures
For most work we operate with split payments, taking 1/2 or 1/3 of the estimated payment for the project up-front and collecting the final payments at milestones or on project completion and site transfer. Most invoices are sent with a 15 day payment period unless they are marked as pay upon receipt.
We generally take payment through checks mailed to our physical location or through paypal or other payment gateways when needed. If a payment gateway, such as paypal, is most convenient for your company, we reserve the right to charge back or accommodate for the paypal payment fee in invoices.
Late Payments
If payment is more than 2 weeks late from the pay by date specified on the invoice, we reserve the right to charge a late fee of 10% of the unpaid total for each week later than the payment date. Thus, a payment that is 4 weeks past the payment date specified may be subject to a 40% late fee. We understand that payment sometimes takes time to process and are happy to work within structures your company uses, but please let us know beforehand so that we can accommodate your processes and write them into the contract.