Philosphy

Silicon Chisel takes a different approach to design work. There are many “web designers” out there, but not many with the same approach to doing business as Silicon Chisel.

1) Web Systems vs. Web Sites. A lot of web designers build sites that then require time-intensive labor to add or modify content. These sites may look incredible, but the recurring costs of keeping the site current can be a rude surprise. Silicon Chisel builds site systems based on open-source scripts and mySQL databases. These content systems can be “skinned” to look just as nice as a conventional site, but have the added advantage of being easy enough to operate that the site owner can manage their own content. No recurring update fees. The client is enabled to own, operate, and manage their site and their content.

2) Get what you want, not what you’d settle for. A lot of web projects start out with “Here’s Phase 1, and then we’ll see what comes next.” The client knows what they want, but either doesn’t know how to get from Point A to Point B, isn’t sure if what they want is possible, or doesn’t think they can afford the project. At Silicon Chisel we have found that it’s usually more cost effective to build the desired end-result site first. This cuts out the labor costs of migrating a site through various stages and, more important, the client gets what they really want sooner.

3) Pay for functionality, not for copy editing. A lot of the work of building a site is content creation. A good web designer can integrate initial content more quickly, but from that point on, it becomes an expensive proposition to have the designer be the copy editor. Since Silicon Chisel builds a modular web system for its clients, it becomes very easy for the client to request new features and for Silicon Chisel to then incorporate these into the site. And by the nature of the site system itself, the client is enabled to manage their own content.

4) Professionalism. Many web designers are self-taught and/or come from non-professional or non-technical backgrounds. Silicon Chisel’s staff come from the high tech industry and switched to consulting. They have decades of industry experience ranging from huge Fortune 500 corporations to daring start-ups. As such, Silicon Chisel treats each project and each client with the level of expertise and professionalism you’d expect from an industry veteran.

“CTO-to-Go”

Technology is a part of business now for virtually every kind of business. From doctors offices to hair salons. Every company needs a web site at least, and the bigger the company the more they need. One of the observations Silicon Chisel made during the “dot-com” boom was many companies were paying a lot of money for CTO’s (Chief Technical Officers) and really only needed about a quarter of that person’s time.

The concept of “CTO To Go” is that many smaller or emerging companies need some high-powered help in the technology space. The activities of a “CTO To Go” can include:

• Finding and deploying web infrastructure technology (call center, CRM, information portal)
• Negotiating technology licenses
• Hiring the core development staff
• Laying out a technology roadmap
• Defining technology requirements based on a business idea or plan

These tasks can take 2 or 3 months to complete, and then Directors and line managers can take it from there. The company is saved having to hire a full-time CTO, yet gets the benefits of having a highly experienced industry veteran guiding their technical development.

The usual working arrangement is that a member of Silicon Chisel is given a title such as “Director of Technology” at the client company to enable them to act on behalf of the company. Payment can be any combination of hourly rate, per-task fee, and equity.

“FAQ”

What services does Silicon Chisel provide?

• Pretty much anything that’s related to the online world or graphics: Web site design
• CMS (Content Management System) implementations
• Community sites (BBS, news portals, etc.)
• Management consultant (“CTO-to-go”)
• Custom PHP scripting
• Logo and graphic design
• Photo retouching

What does Silicon Chisel charge for design work?

It depends on the nature of the work. Generally it will run between $50 and $75 per hour. This may seem expensive to some who are used to more conventional web designers. The difference here is that Silicon Chisel builds sites which the owner can then run themselves – no recurring fees for doing minor modifications.

What if I know what I want on my site, but don’t know anything about technology?

That’s fine. We prefer to deal with clients who know what they want. It’s easier to do a design, and less expensive for the client in the long run, if the complete feature set is established before the first web page is authored. We don’t expect clients to know everything that’s available. But we do expect clients to take our advice about what works online and what does not. This is especially true for any sort of community-based site where the human dynamic comes into play.