Stop 8 of 9 · Daily
Studio operations
Proposals and scopes that survive the third week, change requests priced the same day, invoices that go out on time, and a capacity model that says no for you.
The work around the work
Dany's studio loses more money to operations than to bad builds. A proposal written at eleven at night, a scope with no out of scope list, four hours of unbilled favours a month per client, and an invoice run that slips a week because everyone is busy. None of it is design and all of it is the business.
Every piece here is a document with a shape, which is exactly the kind of work to hand over first. The studio Project already holds the standards, the rates and the retainer tiers.
The scope that survives
Four parts, always. Named deliverables with numbers, so five pages means five. The number of revision rounds. An explicit out of scope list, which is where the arguments live. And the assumptions the price depends on: the client supplies the photos, the copy arrives by the fifth, the domain is under their control.
[paste the discovery call notes] Write the proposal for this client using our retainer tiers and rates from the Project. Sections: what they asked for in their words, what we will deliver as a numbered list with counts, what is out of scope, the assumptions the price depends on, the revision rounds, the timeline with the dates we need things from them, and the price. Flag anything in the notes I have not priced, and anything they said that contradicts something else they said.
[paste the client's email] This client signed the scope attached. Tell me whether this request is inside it or outside it, and quote the exact sentence you are relying on. If it is outside, write me the reply: one sentence saying what we will do, the hours, the price, what it moves in the schedule, and a request for a yes in writing. Friendly, four lines, no apology.
Retainers themselves run as Stripe subscriptions, so the recurring half sends itself on the same date every month. The invoice run is only about what sits on top: approved change requests and hours over the tier.
[attach this month's tickets, change requests and the retainer list] For each client this month: the retainer amount from their tier, plus any approved change requests with their agreed price, plus any hours over the tier with the tickets that used them. Give me one table for the invoice run and a separate list of anything I should not bill because there is no written approval. Do not write to any client.
The capacity model
One number per person per week for build hours, honest rather than heroic, minus the retainer hours the machine does not cover. Against it, what is committed. When committed exceeds available, something moves before anyone promises a date, and the studio knows on the second of the month rather than the twenty-eighth.
| Question the model answers | When you ask it |
|---|---|
| Can we take this project | Before the proposal goes out |
| What moves if we do | Before a date is promised |
| Are we short a person or short a rate | At the end of the quarter |
The hiring note
Three months of the model is the hiring conversation. If committed hours beat available hours every month and the retainer machine has already taken the repeatable work out, the studio needs a person, and the note that says so should carry the numbers rather than the feeling.
[attach three months of the capacity model and the ticket log] Write me a one page note answering whether this studio should hire. Cover: hours committed against available by month, which kind of work is overflowing, what the retainer machine already absorbed, what a new person would take over in their first month, and what would have to be true for us to be wrong. Give the honest case against hiring as well.