To our friends and clients,
It's been quite a challenging time for our business. While it may seem that things are going smoother than ever, it's taking an increasing amount of time and effort to manage everything. With the rise of AI bots, we've spent far more time keeping things running smoothly than we've needed to do in the past. As our systems become far more capable with the awesomeness that is Drupal 10, when we hit problems they are much, much harder to solve. And to be able to hire and pay employees capable of providing the level of service we strive for, we've reached the unavoidable conclusion that we need to raise our rates.
We take pride in providing excellent solutions, staying on top of the rapid march of technology, and applying what we've learned to help our clients make their websites effective. We find ourselves working harder and more than ever -- only to fall short on meeting our client's expectations in terms of timeline and communications, and struggling with blown deadlines, leading to financial challenges. And when we take a moment to survey the market, we discover we are delivering far more value at far lower cost than most of our competitors.
This is leading us to a major pivot in our business.
What's the value of having a website if it's not working?
It's a turbulent time on the web. Google results have gone to crap. Artificial Intelligence models are filling the Internet with bullshit. The big 5 - 6 tech companies are sucking the air out of the economy -- what is the owner of a website supposed to do to stay relevant, attract business/readers/donors (or whatever your primary goal is)? How do you find a vendor who can fix what's broken on your website, and help you figure out what to do next?
That's what we are here to do -- to help site owners make their websites effective.
That's not something that happens once and then you're done. Crypto. AI. Content Security Policies. Privacy legislation. Accessibility requirements. Cookies. Page loading speeds. Social Media. Search. Analytics. Sitemaps. Commerce. Memberships. Events. CRM. There's an absolutely overwhelming number of different things you need to have some basic understanding of, to run a site - not to mention a business - successfully.
The landscape keeps changing -- and if you're not keeping up, you have competitors who are, who may just eat your lunch.
Join us on our new journey
We are embarking on a new journey to explore all the areas website owners need to be informed about -- one topic at a time. Some topics -- like security, analytics and maintenance -- are things we cover as a base service. Others are things that may or may not be relevant to your particular site -- but we are always here to delve into questions you may have for your site, especially if they might be of interest to others.
How do you join us? Make sure you're on our list, and watch your inbox -- we'll be sending out a summary of a topic on a monthly basis, with links to blog posts, video meetings, podcasts, and suggestions for improvements on your website.
New rates
So we're not just going to raise our rates without you getting something in return. With our new rates we plan to:
- Improve our project management -- communications, reports, and expectations will become much more clear and timely
- Improve our turnaround times -- we will be able to hire more senior developers to review work and keep work moving
- Actively recommend things that add value to your site and organization
We hope you will stay with us for the ride, and if you're not yet a customer, you can "Get Help" in the upper right corner of this website!
Thank you for your continued partnership with Freelock.
- John Locke, President, Freelock LLC.