Greetings all, Recently I opened a portfolio site of mine showcasing some of my past works and some of the designing services that I'm doing. One of my friend suggested me that I can even start a service to build a website from scratch for small business traders (in my state), and that is, from domain -> hosting -> site design -> content. In other words, I will be the one who'll be doing the whole website for those small business traders. Now my question is, if I'm into doing like that, should I disclose the details of, let's say, the domain hosting details, CPanel details to my client? Or should I hide those info from them making me the sole administrator for their site? Do I have to put the above limitation in my ToC? Let's say If they ask me to disclose the details, can I say "No"? Thank you all.
You should disclose those all details. After all the site belongs to them and their money. I own a webhosting company and I'm planning to launch the same services(build, host, maintain) for schools,colleges,small businesses in my locality. There is huge potential for this business. If the client is aware of all the geek stuff, you can't hide anything from them including the commission you take. But i'm sure that most small business owners have no idea about this stuff and care a damn to know. All they require is when they type in their URL, the site should load. That's it. When i spoke about BW, control panels, shared and VPS plans, he could understand nothing and just asked me to take care of everything. Most probably, this is the single reply you are going to get from any of your clients if you are targetting local market. All the best. PS: I ordered business cards and they are on the way
Yes you should tell the domain and hosting details to client coz the thing is belong to them. And its more wise to keep thing transparent between client to keep them happy.
If you are honest and transparent clients respect that and you will realise that most small businesses apreciate the personal touch and at times would be willing to pay a little extra for that but definately keep your prices competitive.