Inquiry

Custom Web Development Inquiry

Let's get started

Tell us a bit about yourself so we can prepare for your inquiry.

First Name *

Last Name *

Email *

Phone

Review & Sign Contract

Please read the agreement below and sign to continue.

Legal

Planning Fee Agreement

Last updated: March 2026 This Planning Fee Agreement ("Agreement") is entered into between Elijah Lemanski, doing business through eplemanski.com ("Developer," "Consultant," "I," "me," or "my"), and the person or business requesting planning, scoping, and pre-development consulting services ("Client," "you," or "your"). This Agreement applies when you inquire about custom web development, WordPress development, plugin work, redesign work, migrations, integrations, performance work, or related digital services and are asked to pay a $250.00 planning fee before a full project proposal is prepared. By paying the planning fee, scheduling a planning engagement, checking any agreement box, or submitting project materials for planning work after being presented with this Agreement, you agree to be bound by its terms.

1. Purpose of the Planning Fee

The $250.00 planning fee is charged to compensate me for the time, analysis, review, and professional judgment required to evaluate your inquiry in a serious and useful way before any build begins. Planning work is real work. It often involves reviewing your goals, existing website, requested features, business constraints, functionality needs, content structure, platform issues, timeline expectations, dependencies, and likely risks. The planning phase is designed to determine whether your project is a good fit, what it may require, what should be included, what should be excluded, what risks exist, and what a realistic scope and price range may look like. It is not a promise that I will accept the project, begin development immediately, or produce a final proposal on the terms you hoped for.

2. Fee Amount and Payment Terms

The planning fee is a flat, non-refundable fee of $250.00 per planning engagement unless I expressly agree otherwise in writing. Payment is due in full before the planning engagement begins. I am under no obligation to review materials, reserve time, schedule calls, or prepare written recommendations until payment has been successfully received. If your payment fails, is reversed, is disputed, or results in a chargeback, I may immediately pause or stop all planning work and withhold any unfinished materials until the payment issue is resolved.

3. What the Planning Fee May Include

Depending on the inquiry, the planning engagement may include some or all of the following:

review of your intake form, emails, notes, references, screenshots, and existing website or project materials;
one or more calls, written follow-ups, or email exchanges to clarify goals and constraints;
review of likely scope boundaries, technical complexity, and implementation risks;
preliminary recommendations regarding platform fit, WordPress approach, plugin approach, architecture, workflow, or direction;
a written scope outline, recommendation summary, estimate range, or proposal if I determine one is appropriate;
identification of blockers, missing information, or unresolved requirements that must be addressed before development could begin.

The exact format and amount of output will vary by project. Some inquiries require a short summary. Others require a more detailed scope breakdown. The fee pays for my professional planning time, not for a guaranteed quantity of pages, meetings, or revisions.

4. What the Planning Fee Does Not Include

Unless I expressly agree otherwise in writing, the planning fee does not include:

actual website or plugin development;
design execution, full mockups, Figma work, wireframes, branding, or copywriting;
custom coding, implementation, migration work, content entry, SEO setup, hosting configuration, or launch work;
ongoing troubleshooting for an existing live website;
unlimited consulting, unlimited revisions, or open-ended access to advisory support;
a guarantee that I will offer a build contract or that you will accept one if offered.

5. Non-Refundable Nature of the Fee

The planning fee is charged because I am allocating focused professional time to your inquiry. For that reason, the fee is non-refundable once planning work begins, even if:

you decide not to move forward;
I recommend a smaller, different, or phased project than you expected;
the likely project cost is outside your budget;
you postpone the project;
you choose to hire another provider;
I determine the project is not a good fit for my services.

If I receive payment but do not begin any planning work and choose not to proceed for my own reasons, I may refund the fee in whole or in part at my discretion.

6. No Obligation to Enter a Development Project

Payment of the planning fee does not obligate either party to move forward into a larger project. I may determine that the project is not a fit because of scope, budget, timing, communication concerns, legal concerns, technical constraints, or lack of availability. You are also free to decline any proposal or recommendation I provide. The planning fee compensates only the planning phase. It does not create an automatic right to future services, project scheduling, production time, or locked pricing.

7. Possible Credit Toward Future Work

The planning fee is not automatically credited toward a later project. If I choose to apply some or all of the planning fee toward a future build, that credit must be clearly stated in writing in the later proposal or agreement. If no written credit is stated, no credit applies.

8. Timeline and Process

I will make reasonable efforts to begin and complete planning work within a reasonable time after payment, taking into account current workload, project complexity, my need for information from you, and scheduling constraints. Planning timelines are estimates, not guarantees. The process may pause or extend if you are slow to respond, if your requirements materially change, if important information is missing, or if technical review reveals complications that require additional clarification.

9. Your Responsibilities During Planning

You agree to provide accurate, complete, and timely information during the planning phase, including where relevant:

business goals and desired outcomes;
required features and functionality;
budget expectations and preferred timeline;
platform details, logins, hosting details, or technical context where needed;
existing issues, limitations, or third-party dependencies that may affect the work.

I may rely on the information you provide when preparing recommendations, estimates, or scope direction. I am not responsible for errors, delays, or inaccurate planning caused by incomplete, outdated, misleading, or incorrect information from you or your team.

10. Scope Drift

Planning is not an unlimited brainstorming arrangement. If the inquiry expands materially beyond the original discussion, I may pause the engagement and request an additional planning fee, convert the work to a separate consulting arrangement, or decline to continue until the new scope is clarified. Examples of scope drift include major changes in business model, moving from a standard website to a web application, adding complex custom integrations, adding multiple stakeholder rounds, or substantially increasing research demands after the planning has begun.

11. Deliverables and Use of Planning Materials

Any notes, recommendations, scope outlines, estimates, architecture comments, strategy summaries, proposals, or related planning materials I provide are prepared for your internal evaluation of the project. You may use them to decide whether to move forward with me. You may not republish, resell, distribute, or present those materials as your own professional planning package, and you may not use them as a line-by-line production blueprint for another developer without my written permission.

12. Estimates Are Preliminary

Any range, estimate, timeline, recommendation, phase structure, or scope direction produced during planning is preliminary unless and until I issue a formal proposal or signed development agreement stating otherwise. Projects evolve. If new information appears after planning, I may revise scope, pricing, assumptions, structure, technical recommendations, and timing accordingly.

13. No Guarantee of Project Approval or Business Results

I do not guarantee that I will accept your project, that you will like the recommended scope, that the final price will match your expectations, or that a completed project would produce any particular business result. Planning reduces uncertainty, but it does not eliminate it.

14. Communications

Planning work may be delivered by email, written document, phone call, video call, recorded walkthrough, or a combination of those methods, at my discretion unless we agree otherwise. I may set reasonable limits on the number and length of calls or follow-up rounds included in the planning fee. Additional advisory work outside the original planning scope may require a new fee or a separate consulting arrangement.

15. Confidentiality

I will use reasonable care not to publicly disclose confidential business information you share with me during the planning phase, except as required by law, as reasonably necessary to perform the services, or where the information is already public through no fault of mine. You should not send passwords, payment card data, government ID numbers, or highly sensitive regulated information unless specifically requested and a secure method is agreed upon. You also agree not to circulate my private pricing logic, internal methods, planning structure, or non-public recommendation materials outside your decision-making team except where reasonably necessary to evaluate the project.

16. Intellectual Property

All planning frameworks, questionnaires, recommendation formats, checklists, scope-writing methods, proposal language, diagrams, workflows, and related materials remain my intellectual property unless a later signed agreement states otherwise. The planning fee does not transfer ownership of my process. It compensates me for using that process to evaluate your inquiry.

17. Independent Contractor Relationship

I act as an independent contractor. Nothing in this Agreement creates a partnership, joint venture, employment relationship, agency relationship, or exclusive business relationship between us.

18. Disclaimer of Warranties

Planning services are provided "as is" and based on the information available at the time. I do not warrant that every risk will be identified in advance, that every unknown will be resolved during planning, or that any recommendation will produce a particular commercial or technical outcome.

19. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, my total liability arising from or relating to the planning engagement will not exceed the $250.00 planning fee actually paid by you for the engagement giving rise to the claim. I will not be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or punitive damages, including lost profits, lost opportunities, business interruption, delay losses, reputational harm, or costs incurred by relying on preliminary planning outside a final signed development agreement.

20. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Elijah Lemanski and eplemanski.com from and against claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of your misuse of the planning materials, your violation of law, your infringement of third-party rights, your inaccurate project representations, or your breach of this Agreement.

21. Termination

Either party may end the planning relationship at any time before a separate development agreement is signed. If the planning fee has already been earned through work begun or completed, no refund is due. Sections that by their nature should survive termination, including payment, intellectual property, confidentiality, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, governing law, and dispute terms, will survive.

22. Governing Law and Venue

This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Wisconsin, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute arising from or related to this Agreement shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts serving Marathon County, Wisconsin, and each party consents to that jurisdiction and venue.

23. Entire Agreement

This Agreement, together with any invoice, intake form, payment page, email confirming the planning engagement, and any policy pages expressly incorporated by reference, constitutes the entire agreement between you and me regarding the $250.00 planning fee and supersedes prior discussions about that planning engagement.

24. Severability and Waiver

If any part of this Agreement is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain enforceable to the maximum extent permitted by law. My failure to enforce any provision once is not a waiver of my right to enforce it later.

25. Contact

Elijah Lemanski Marathon City, Wisconsin elijah@eplemanski.com eplemanski.com

Your Full Name (as signature) *

I have read and agree to the terms above

What People Say