If you know exactly what your organization needs — for example, you’re sure you need a new logo and brand identity or you want to start mailing custom-designed, four-page quarterly newsletters to new clients — we are happy to provide a custom, project-based proposal.

Project rates are typically discounted to reflect the efficiency gained from completing a well-defined scope of work in a structured timeframe. Custom, project-based proposals are perfect for complete branding or rebranding efforts, multi-phase marketing plans or campaigns, audience research — including interviews or assessments, copywriting and/or graphic design of long-form reports or thought leadership — or team photography and videography. If you don’t know exactly what you need but you know you need some help, we recommend starting with a Brand Assessment Sprint and Audit to outline realistic ideas, challenges, opportunities, tactics and cost ranges that make sense for your team, timing and budget.

Depending on your needs, working on a retainer basis may make sense. In this structure, we provide ongoing strategy, branding, marketing, design and photography services for a set number of hours or projects each month in exchange for a consistent fee.

This arrangement ensures you have priority access to our team. With a retainer agreement, we’ll get to know you and your brand, team members, processes and working style inside and out, so you can expect consistent quality and faster turnaround times as the relationship continues.

Retainer agreements allow you to manage your budget predictably and get access to reliable strategic support without waiting for custom quotes, scheduling, contracts or renegotiating each project or request.

Please note that we only accept a handful of retainer clients and adhere to a six-month minimum timeframe for this option. We strive to retain control of internal bandwidth — never overextending ourselves or under-delivering for the existing clients we already know and love — so access to this retainer structure is highly limited.

This setup can be a strategic choice if you need flexibility and ongoing (but sporadic) support and you aren’t able to pre-plan for a specific project in advance.

It’s also really great when you have a time-sensitive need and aren’t able to wait for us to develop a custom, project-based proposal or scope of work. Under this structure, we can jump into your project quickly, track our hours and wrap it up with a final invoice once complete.

While our ad hoc and on-demand hourly rates are higher than a custom, project-based engagement, you get on-demand access to our team when you need it.

With ad hoc and on-demand hours, there’s no need for you to come up with work for us to do just to use the hours. Ad hoc and on-demand work is billed at a one-hour minimum, per request, and in 15-minute units following the first hour.

We earmark blocks of pro bono professional service hours each year to support select nonprofits or woman-owned small businesses in our region. If you run a nonprofit or woman-owned small business, ask us about our available pro bono hours. While accessing any available pro bono service hours will require a paid one-to-one match (ex. purchase one VIP day, get a second one at no cost), these pro bono hours can significantly help stretch your limited and finite resources for the greater good.

We offer dedicated, full-day sessions focused exclusively on you and your identified needs. Carving out uninterrupted time allows us to implement a specific solution, address many miscellaneous items or handle a pie-in-the-sky deliverable in mere days — not across drawn-out weeks or months. (This is also commonly referred to in the industry as a “Book Us by the Day” or “Day Rate” setup.) 

This intensive approach ensures high-quality outcomes and quick turnaround. VIP full- or half-days are ideal for addressing priority findings from a Brand Assessment Sprint and Audit. Since detailed recommendations in a Brand Assessment Sprint and Audit are formatted like an easy-to-follow “to-do” list, we can jump in and tackle specific tasks in order of priority and impact. Plus, with the pay-per-day structure, you have complete control of the budget, the work gets done efficiently and we don’t have to worry about scope creep. 

Wouldn't it be wonderful to actually start and finish important projects and lingering tasks? We promise you, it is totally possible, and you're going to love it.

How it works:

We'll do pre-work together (on a 30-minute call) and talk about a realistic plan. What kinds of projects are on your plate that you can't find time to tackle? Do you need more than an updated tri-fold but can't find a minute to even think about creating a catchy campaign and supporting collateral? Do you have multiple, smaller projects or tasks lingering on your mind but they never actually make it to the top of your priority list? PS — you know as well as we do that those projects aren't going away no matter how good you've become at neglecting them. 

After our call, you'll gather and share any assets like photos, logos, archived or current marketing collateral for reference, etc. This way, we have everything we need to really wrap our heads around what we're working with and what we need to build.  

We’ll book your dedicated day(s) and get to work when the day comes.

VIP days work well for:

VIP days are also ideal for website audits or updates, creating email marketing campaigns or templates, developing a refreshed deck for a sales team, writing blog posts or content for a specific service line, illustrating a custom infographic, setup of an event-specific landing page, or crafting a lead magnet, e-book or white paper.