Flat fees are discounts in disguise

Someone offered us 400 € a month, every month, for a year.

We said no. And it took us almost two weeks to say it properly.

The offer came from a partner agency that sends us web development work. They do the design and content; we build. We wanted to keep working together, and so did they.

Their proposal: 400 € a month for 12 months, covering all their websites. Projects already agreed would finish under the old terms. Everything new would go under the flat fee. Hosting and domains billed separately to each client.

That same day I wrote back. First, thank you, and yes, we want to find a way. Then the questions the proposal didn't answer.

How many projects a month? How many in the 12 months? Every project has a different structure and different features. How many hours would each one take?

Their reply came the next day. They saw it as roughly 400 € per website. They suggested reviewing it every quarter. And they were honest about why: they couldn't pay 800 € per website for development.

I appreciated the honesty. It also made the problem very clear.

The all-you-can-eat buffet

I was tempted. I'll admit it.

400 € every month, for a year, guaranteed. For a two-person studio that started with 300 €, a fixed income has a strong pull. It feels like calm.

But I did the sum the other way round. If the fee is fixed, the only thing that can change is the amount of work. And the amount of work wasn't written anywhere.

It's an all-you-can-eat buffet. Lovely for whoever's eating. The restaurant's only hope is that you're not very hungry.

A flat fee with no limit on the work isn't a price. It's a discount that grows every month.

"All of them" isn't a number. Divide the fee by a realistic volume and you see the real discount you're giving. And one complex website can eat a month's fee on its own. If nothing in the deal covers that, you carry it alone.

A middle point, out loud

Yeray and I took our time. We wanted to get it right.

I told them we'd tried to fit their proposal into the way we work, and we couldn't see it. For us, the deal needed to be per project.

Then I gave them our real numbers. Our average for a website with a direct client is about 1,250 €. For agencies, we already adjust it to about 950 €.

And instead of a flat yes or no, I sent a new price table. A middle point between their proposal and ours. Reference prices, each project approved before starting. Predictability for them, without giving the work away.

Per-project pricing isn't us being rigid. It's how we make sure we can put the hours in. Our agency rates already take different kinds of cases into account, so we can invest the time each website actually needs and the result works for the client at the end of the chain.

If a fee forces you to cut hours, quality drops. And the end client notices before anyone else does.

A partner who pays less than the work costs ends up with a supplier who is quietly losing money. That never lasts. Not for the supplier, and not for the partner either.

The fixed fee looked like security.

The real security was knowing exactly what each project is worth, and saying it out loud.

P.S. Turning down guaranteed money when you started with 300 € feels a bit like refusing a lifebuoy. Unless the lifebuoy is tied to an anchor.