It is no surprise that web design companies are desperately trying to get into application design. Web design as a business is highly commodified with small margins and a crowded competitive landscape. Even the top early providers are watching their ability to get customers affordably and service them profitably become seriously compromised. Web design companies are scrambling for new opportunities.

Sorry to burst your bubble and scuttle your budgets of time and money. It’s true. I’ve seen it dozens of times: clients come to us saying something has to has to has to be shipped in 12 weeks. We tell them there is no way that can happen, no matter how much they pay us. They disagree and pay us what is required. They are subsequently unable - between their internal approvals, back-end engineering, design integration, product testing, deployment and many other factors- to get their product shipped anywhere near the deadline.

Beyond the Sisyphean nature of the frustration felt by everyone involved, our relationship with the customer is ostensibly strained in these situations. On one hand, we’ve worked hard and quickly and done everything we could in the contracted time frame; on the other, the design remains incomplete albeit for reasons beyond our control. Most customers are reasonable and accept that the delta is caused by their internal issues. Sometimes we try to give a little extra to help them get over the hump. Every rare occasion an unscrupulous client tries to take advantage of the situation and compel us to work for free because of their issues. Either way, nobody is happy. Our goal is always to lead or help our customers in shipping incredible software, and making a reasonable profit in the process. If we wanted to afford yachts and vacation houses, believe me we would not be in the services business to begin with!