Pricing, Discounts & Payment Terms Playbook

How to assemble, price, discount, and get paid for a job — so every quote is consistent, defensible, and lands in the bank. Operational playbook — derived from Business model + Decisions log (settled) + Brand strategy.

TL;DR — Daniel's three questions

• Payment options? SA: 50% deposit to book, balance Net 7–14, ZAR, card/EFT via Paystack (Yoco for in-person). INTL: 50% upfront, invoice in USD/GBP, milestones or escrow offered as a feature to first-timers, paid via Wise/Payoneer (~2%). See §4.
• Discounts for early clients? Exactly one "founding client" slot per package, and only ever traded — in writing, before the price drops — for a named case study + before/after metrics rights. It is the cheapest CAC we have. No other discounting. See §3.
• What should the targets be? R25–35k/mo net by month 12 at ~11–17 h/wk (floor ~R20k, peak months R45–55k; recurring floor R9–14k/mo by Q4). Steer by deal flow × the hours ceiling, not price-per-job — and push toward the top by raising the INTL Repaint anchor, not by adding volume. See §5.

The published ladder (recap only — detail lives in Business model)

Prices are fixed published scope, never hourly. INTL price is the invoice currency; ZAR shown at spot R16.33/$ but plan and realize at an R16.0/$ buffer. The internal shadow rate R900/hr is a sanity check only — never quoted to a client.

This doc is about assembling and delivering a quote, not re-teaching the ladder. The ladder, scope boundaries, and unit economics are settled in Business model; change them there, not here.

1. The quoting process

A quote is assembled, not invented each time:

Quote = base package + optional delivery stages + recurring line + add-ons.

1. Start from written scope. Ideally the output of a Signal Audit (or a free 2-min look → offered as the ladder, never ambushing each other — see Brand strategy). Scope on paper first is the single best defence against creep.
2. Pick ONE base package off the ladder that matches the trigger/ICP. Don't blend packages — if it's bigger than the box, it's the next package up, not a bent version of this one.
3. Add optional delivery stages if the build ships in phases → see Delivery ladder. Each stage is its own fixed line.
4. Attach the recurring line (Care Plan and/or Chat) as a separate monthly figure, billed on its own rail → see Recurring & Care Plans. Never fold the retainer into the build price.
5. Add add-ons (extra pages, extra revision round, rush, broadcast/marketing messages) as itemised lines → see Services & add-ons.
6. Sanity-check against the shadow rate. Estimate all-in hours (build + revisions + discovery/SOW/invoicing/handoff + support) × R900. If the fixed price implies below ~R700/hr effective, narrow the scope or move up a package — do not silently eat it. (The ~R700/hr floor is Proposed — not yet in DECISIONS.md.)
7. Currency. INTL: invoice at the published INTL price in the client's currency; convert to ZAR at R16.0/$ only for your own planning math.
8. Respect the concurrency cap. One active build + a waitlist. If a build is live, quote a start date after it, never a parallel promise.
9. Apply a founding discount only if a named-reference trade is agreed in writing (§3).
10. Write it into the SOW skeleton (§7) with the correct terms block (§4).

2. Change orders

Scope creep is the #1 documented failure mode (reverts productized offers to bespoke within ~90 days; ~$7,800–15,600/yr lost). The discipline:

• Anything off the published scope = a change order, billed at R900/hr SA · $110/hr INTL. This is the only hourly number a client ever sees.
• Quote it in writing and get sign-off BEFORE any work starts. No verbal "sure, I'll add that."
• "Upsell to the next package, never bend the current one." A request that's really a bigger job → re-quote as the higher package, not as unbilled goodwill.
• Through an agency partner, scope changes route back to Daniel for a written re-quote — the agency owns the client but not the scope line.
• Proposed minimum billing: change orders billed in a 1-hour minimum, then 30-min increments — not yet in DECISIONS.md.

3. Founding-client / early discounts

The reference engine calls for one discounted "founding client" per package, traded explicitly for a named case study + before/after metrics rights. This is the cheapest customer acquisition we have — the discount is the entire marketing spend for that reference.

Policy:

Distinguish from ad-hoc discounting — which we avoid:

• Never discount to close a hesitant buyer. That trains the market to negotiate and damages the anchor. If price is the objection, drop to a smaller package (Launch, or a Signal Audit first), don't cut the price of this one. (Proposed as a standing rule — not yet in DECISIONS.md.)
• Risk-reversal is soft promises only — fixed price honoured, you own everything, no lock-in — never money-back (Brand strategy #10). A discount is not a substitute for confidence.

4. Payment terms & rails

SA clients

INTL clients

Proposed default rail ordering: Paystack primary for SA (Yoco for in-person), Wise primary for INTL. Rails themselves are grounded in the source docs; the "primary default" ordering is Proposed — not yet in DECISIONS.md.

Terms block — SA (paste into the SOW)

Fixed price: R[TOTAL] for the scope above. 50% deposit (R[HALF]) books your slot and starts the work; the balance is due within 7 days of handoff. Priced in ZAR, paid by card or EFT. The price is fixed for this scope — anything outside it is quoted in writing before any work starts (R900/hr). On final payment you own all the code and accounts; it's month-to-month after that, cancel any time, no lock-in.

Terms block — INTL (paste into the SOW)

Fixed price: $[TOTAL] for the scope above. To keep a first project low-risk we work in milestones (or platform escrow if you prefer): 50% to start, 50% on handoff, and you approve each stage before it's billed. Invoiced in USD/GBP. The price is fixed for this scope — anything outside it is quoted in writing first ($110/hr). On final payment you own all the code and accounts; it's month-to-month after that, cancel any time, no lock-in.

5. Targets — what to steer by

Honest band (net, by month 12, at ~11–17 h/wk):

Quarter-by-quarter (from Roadmap):

The one operating truth that governs pricing:

The binding constraint is qualified deal flow × the ~20 h/wk ceiling — NOT price-per-job. Volume is hours-capped, so you cannot grow by taking more builds. You push toward the top of the band by raising the INTL Repaint anchor from $2,750 → $3,500–4,500 once arm's-length references exist (settled in Decisions log). A price lever, not a volume lever.

When to reprice (pre-agreed triggers from the KPI checkpoints):

• M3 — if measured all-in Repaint hours exceed ~40h, the fixed price underprices the work → raise SA Repaint to R32–35k / INTL to $3,500, or narrow scope to ≤6 pages.
• M6 — if retainer support runs >2.5 h/mo/client, recurring is underpriced/over-scoped → reprice Care to R1,200 Basic / R1,800 Std and cap scope harder.
• M12 — if stuck at R15–20k the ceiling is deal flow (raise INTL anchors, deepen the niche); if above R35k but hours >18 h/wk, stop taking projects, raise prices, convert excess to recurring — protect the day job over growth.

6. Agency wholesale (Bree Media House / ICP-C)

Dual-rate, settled in Decisions log:

• Always keep the hosting/retainer layer — it is the anti-capture moat, the one thing the agency can't cheaply replace.
• The 25–30% figure is an unverified estimate (research grounds only the ~10% referral norm) — validate it with partner #1 (Bree Media House) before treating it as fixed.
• Agency scope changes route back to Daniel for a written re-quote (§2).
• ⛔ No hospitality leads through this channel, ever — hospitality decline is stated in every agency-partner brief.

7. Quoting checklist

Before a quote goes out:

• Scope is written down (Signal Audit output or explicit free-look notes)
• One base package chosen — not a blend
• Delivery stages, recurring, and add-ons are separate itemised lines
• Recurring is a monthly figure on its own rail, not folded into the build
• Shadow-rate sanity check done — effective rate ≥ ~R700/hr, else rescope/upsell
• INTL: invoiced in client currency; my planning math at R16.0/$; channel take (Upwork 15%, ~2% rail) accounted for
• Concurrency cap respected — start date reflects the waitlist if a build is live
• Founding discount only with signed case-study + metrics rights
• Correct terms block (SA vs INTL) pasted, with deposit % and change-order rate stated
• No hospitality. No AI hype, no tech-stack talk in the client-facing copy
• Risk-reversal is soft promises only — no money-back language

8. Quote / SOW skeleton

danielslater.dev — Statement of Work

Client:            [name / business]
Prepared:          [date]        Valid for: 14 days
Prepared by:       Daniel Slater · Cape Town

WHAT YOU GET (fixed scope)
  Base package:    [Package name]                         R/$ [price]
  Delivery stages: [stage 1 / stage 2, if phased]         R/$ [price]
  Add-ons:         [extra pages / extra revision / rush]  R/$ [each]
  --------------------------------------------------------------------
  One-off total:                                          R/$ [TOTAL]

  Recurring (billed monthly, separate):
  [Care Plan tier / Chat Agent retainer]                  R/$ [/mo]

NOT INCLUDED (change-order territory, R900/hr · $110/hr, quoted first)
  - [anything the client might assume is in but isn't]

TIMELINE
  Start:           [date — after current build if a slot is queued]
  Delivery:        [X weeks], [N] revision round(s) included

PAYMENT           [paste the SA or INTL terms block from §4]

OWNERSHIP & CONTINUITY
  You own all code and accounts on final payment.
  Month-to-month after handoff. No lock-in.

Open decisions (→ DECISIONS.md)

Flagged Proposed in this doc — Daniel to ratify or amend; the log disposes:

1. Founding-client discount band — 25–30% default (extend to ~40% for a marquee arm's-length INTL reference), one slot per package, released only against a written case-study + metrics-rights trade. (The concept is in the reference engine; the specific band is new.)
2. No ad-hoc discounting rule — discounts buy a named reference, never close a hesitant signature; drop to a smaller package instead of cutting price.
3. Shadow-rate sanity floor — reject or rescope any quote whose fixed price implies below ~R700/hr effective.
4. Change-order minimum billing — 1-hour minimum, then 30-minute increments.
5. Default deposit-rail ordering — Paystack primary (Yoco in-person) SA; Wise primary INTL. (Rails are grounded; the default ordering is the new bit.)