Don’t quote the 9:41pm text

A client texted “brand refresh?” at 9:41pm. I quoted $6,200 the next morning because I wanted the job and the number felt like a real number. I still don’t know, sitting here, if they meant a logo, a site, packaging, or all three plus the deck their board keeps asking for. That quote was a guess wearing a dollar sign.

I had an intake form. I skipped it because sending a Google Form after a friendly text feels like bringing a clipboard to a drink. So I guessed. My quote email was two sentences, sent at 8:12am: “Brand refresh is $6,200, 50% to start, two weeks.” They said yes at 8:19. The form would have taken them twelve minutes and would have told me about the box. Three weeks later I was designing a box. Boxes were not in the $6,200. I logged the box later, when I was in a mood. Eighteen hours. The original work was forty-one. $6,200 / 59 is $105 an hour. I had quoted in seven minutes as if “brand refresh” were a size.

Ask these before you quote

Intake is not onboarding. Onboarding is what happens after they say yes, before you start. Intake is what you need in writing before you name a price. If you quote first, you will spend the job translating a text message into a brand, and you will do it at the number you already sent.

People who won’t answer these will not pay you on time either. That’s useful to know before you’ve already sent a number.

The questions I actually send

Not “what’s your vision.” That produces visions. Full sentences, one box each.

1. What are we making, in a format a printer or a developer would recognize? (Logo, site, box, deck — “brand” is not a format.)
2. Who is the final approver? One name. If you write “the team,” I will assume there are five.
3. How many rounds of notes do you want included? I’ll write a lower number than the one you type, and we’ll put it on the scope.
4. What Thursday is this due? If your assets arrive late, the date moves. The price doesn’t.
5. How do you pay — on receipt, Net 15, Net 30? And a budget range, even a messy one.

What the answers tell you before you read them

The form does two jobs. The obvious one is the brief. The other is a preview of how the client works. Someone who answers in full sentences, names one approver, and gives a budget range will usually approve a scope quickly and pay on the due date. Someone who leaves half of it blank and replies “let’s just hop on a call” is telling you where the brief is going to live: in the air.

Neither is a reason to turn down the job. It is a reason to adjust the quote. A blank approver line means more rounds, so I price more rounds. A missing budget means I quote two options instead of one number, so the first reply is a choice and not a haggle.

Quote from the form, in writing

The quote goes back as a page that repeats their answers to them. “You said: logo, two lockups, one-page site. Approver: Priya. Due: Thursday, May 7. Two rounds.” Then the fee. If they read their own words and say “actually, we also need the box,” I have just saved three weeks. That sentence is the whole reason the form exists.

• Their answer to “what are we making,” quoted, not paraphrased.
• What is not included, in plain words.
• Rounds, date, and fee, with the payment split.
• A place to say yes before I start.

Keep it short enough to finish

My first form was long. People answered the first few questions and texted me the rest, which put the brief back in my messages. The version I send now has the five questions above and one open box at the end: “Anything else I should know before I quote?” That box is where the box shows up. If a question does not change the price or the date, it belongs on the kickoff call, not the form.

Send it the same day they reach out, while they still want the job to start. A form that arrives a week later reads as homework. A form that arrives within the hour, with one line — “Answer these and I’ll send a number by tomorrow” — reads as someone who is organized, which is most of what a new client is trying to find out.

A form that dumps into a spreadsheet you copy into a doc you copy into an invoice is why the form gets skipped. The answers have to land in the same place as the scope and the bill or you will, at 9:41pm, just quote. I keep them on the same project now. A single Notion page is fine if you actually open it before you send the number.

If they fill it out, you can quote a job. If they don’t, you get to decide whether you want to spend the next month turning a text message into packaging. I have done that month. I would rather lose the friendly text.