Small Business

Practical web and software guidance for small businesses: websites, realistic budgets, tools, and strategies to grow online without overspending.

Fixed Price Contract or Time and Materials?

The choice between a fixed price contract and time and materials is usually framed as a choice about risk, which is correct, and then immediately mishandled, because both sides assume the risk goes away rather than moving. It does not go away. In a fixed price arrangement the supplier carries the risk of the estimate...

How to Write a Software RFP That Gets Useful Quotes

A software RFP is supposed to make suppliers comparable. Most achieve the opposite, because they specify a solution in enough detail to constrain the answer while leaving out the information anybody would need to price it. The result is five quotes spanning an order of magnitude, all technically responsive, none of...

Software Maintenance Cost: What Nobody Budgets For

Software maintenance cost is the number that turns a successful project into a difficult conversation eighteen months later. The build was budgeted, approved and delivered. What happens after it goes live was described as “support” and given a figure somebody guessed at, and that figure was almost always too small. The...

MVP Software Development: Scope, Cost and Timeline

MVP software development goes wrong at the scoping meeting, not during the build. Somebody says “minimum viable product”, everybody nods, and then the feature list arrives containing user accounts, an admin panel, billing, notifications, a dashboard and a mobile app. That is not a minimum viable product. That is a...

WordPress Hacked: Malware Removal and Recovery Guide

If your WordPress site was hacked and is now showing pharmaceutical spam, redirecting visitors to somewhere unpleasant, or has been flagged by Google as deceptive, start here rather than with a plugin. The instinct is to install a security scanner and click clean. That removes the visible symptom and leaves the way in,...