How we scope and price a 30-day website in 48 hours

Most agencies take 1 to 4 weeks to deliver a quote. We deliver in 48 hours. This is the process that makes it possible.

Why 48 hours works

We have built the same kind of project 50+ times. The unknowns are gone. The discovery call gives us the inputs. The template gives us the structure. The pricing model gives us the number. The proposal is the output.

This does not work for novel projects. It works because we have built a scope template and a pricing model from 16 production sites.

Step 1: Discovery call (60 minutes)

The agenda is fixed. We do not improvise.

Minutes 0 to 5: Goals. What is the business outcome you want from this project? More leads, a faster site, a new product launch?

Minutes 5 to 10: Audience. Who is the primary user? Indian SMB founder, US enterprise buyer, internal team?

Minutes 10 to 25: Pages. How many pages? What are they? We estimate word counts and visual complexity.

Minutes 25 to 35: Content. Who writes the copy? Who supplies the images? Is there a CMS or do we hardcode the content?

Minutes 35 to 45: Integrations. Forms, CRM, email, analytics, chatbot, payments, third-party APIs.

Minutes 45 to 50: Timeline. When does this need to be live? Is the date flexible?

Minutes 50 to 55: Budget. What is the budget range?

Minutes 55 to 60: Next steps. If there is a fit, we send a scope document within 24 hours and a proposal within 48 hours.

Step 2: Scope document (24 hours)

The scope template has 14 sections:

1. Goals
2. Audience
3. Pages
4. Content ownership
5. Integrations
6. Timeline
7. Team
8. Stack
9. Deliverables
10. Out of scope
11. Assumptions
12. Change orders
13. Payment schedule
14. Support window

We fill in 12 sections on the discovery call. We fill in 7 and 8 (team and stack) within 24 hours based on the inputs.

Step 3: Pricing model (24 hours)

We do not use hourly pricing. We use a scope-to-price matrix.

The matrix has 12 tiers, from 5 pages with no CMS up to custom web apps with complex integrations.

Each tier has a fixed price. We pick the tier that matches the scope and apply adjustments for integrations, content and timeline.

The price is in scope, not hours. We do not sell hours. We sell outcomes.

Step 4: Proposal (48 hours)

The proposal is 2 pages. Not 20.

Page 1: Scope summary. - 3-line overview of the project. - Table of deliverables with the price. - Timeline with milestones. - Total price and payment schedule.

Page 2: Terms. - Payment schedule. - Change order process. - Support window. - Sign here.

The client signs the proposal and we start the project within 3 business days.

When this breaks

• The scope is unclear.
• The client wants hourly pricing.
• The timeline is impossible.
• The budget is below our minimum.

About 30 percent of discovery calls end with not a fit. That is fine. We would rather say no than over-promise.