Scope & Bill: The commercial side of a services business
Is software engineering dead? An agency owner's honest answer
No. More software is being built than ever, and someone still has to decide what to build, fit it into the systems that already exist, and answer for it when it breaks. What is dying is one business model: routine implementation sold by the hour. Typing code got cheap. Judgment, integration and accountability kept their price.
Scope creep
Scope creep is work added to a project without a matching change in fee or deadline. What causes it, what it costs in real numbers, and how to stop it.
Retainer pricing
How to price a monthly retainer: hours times rate, the commitment discount, rollover and overage rules, and when a client should move to a project.
Who owns the code? What the contract says, and what happens without one
Who owns the code an agency writes: the default rules with no contract, the three ownership models, and what the code you kept is worth.
How to get clients for an agency, consultancy or dev shop
Seven channels that bring an agency clients, with honest lead times for each, the wording to use, and a week-by-week plan for a 90-day drought.
Sell your old repositories
Earn $500+ per repo
Non-exclusive, so you keep the code. The assessment is free and read-only.
See what you’d earnTemplates
- 1Statement of work
- 2Scope of work (short form)
- 3Master services agreement
- 4Retainer agreement
- 5Change request form
- 6Consulting agreement
- All ten templates
Calculators
Scope
Scope creepScope creep is work added to a project without a matching change in fee or deadline. What causes it, what it costs in real numbers, and how to stop it.
Bill
Billable hours
What counts as a billable hour, how many a person can bill in a year, and how to work out the rate those hours must earn to hit your target margin.
Contracts
Statement of work template for software projects, with clause-by-clause notes
A complete statement of work template for agencies and dev shops: deliverables, exclusions, acceptance, payment schedule and change control, explained.
Clients
How to get clients for an agency, consultancy or dev shopSeven channels that bring an agency clients, with honest lead times for each, the wording to use, and a week-by-week plan for a 90-day drought.
Team
Staff augmentation
Staff augmentation from both chairs: the agency selling it and the agency buying it. Margin math, comparison with outsourcing, and contract terms.
AI
Is software engineering dead? An agency owner's honest answer
Software engineering is alive. Hourly billing for routine implementation is dying. What changed, what did not, and what owners and engineers should do.
The working documents
Ten templates, printed in full on the page. The same contracts, forms and checklists we send, with a note on every clause that has cost us money.
See all ten