Why I Started Building Websites For Free First

I run Farrand Digital by myself. No sales team, no account managers, just me. That changes how I think about getting paid.

What I Kept Hearing

Business owners telling me the same story. They paid somebody for a website, sometimes a lot, and got a half finished site, a slow response, or nothing at all once the check cleared. Trust was already gone before I ever talked to them.

Why I Flipped the Order

I decided to build the site first. No deposit, no setup fee. If it's good, you'll want it live. If it's not, you walk away and I've lost some time, not you your money. That felt like the only fair way to do it as one person asking a stranger to trust me.

What This Means for You

You see exactly what you're getting before you pay anything. Once it's live, it's $50 a month. No trial period that quietly turns into something bigger, no fine print you find out about later.

Why I Still Do It This Way

It's slower for me upfront. I don't get paid until the work is done and approved. But it means every client who says yes actually wants what I built, not what I promised. That's worth more to me than getting paid faster.

I'd rather earn the $50 a month than ask for it in advance and hope I earned it later.

— Chad