You came in with a clear vision: a marketplace for beauty professionals to be found, booked, and spotlighted. Think Angie's List, built for stylists, designed to scale. This proposal outlines two phases, real pricing ranges, and exactly what goes into each. No surprises.
Photos, bio, specialties, price list, social links. Direct booking links to each stylist's existing system. Video embeds for portfolio work.
Location and specialty filtering so clients can find the right stylist fast. Reviews and ratings once you have traction on the platform.
Monthly and annual subscriptions. Basic listing vs paid premium tiers. Featured placement, spotlight interviews, top-of-category positioning.
Stripe for subscriptions. Cloudflare for hosting and performance. Supabase for the database. Built lean, built to scale nationally.
Starting local, growing to the Southwest, then nationwide. The platform architecture supports this from day one — no rebuild required.
Your unique differentiator — the idea that makes this wildly marketable. Once you share it, I can scope and price it properly. That's noted below.
One thing I need from you before final pricing is confirmed: your intake selected both "direct booking links to stylist's existing system" and "built-in booking calendar on the platform." These are very different builds. Direct links are included in Phase 1. A built-in booking calendar — where the transaction happens on your platform — adds $3,000 to $5,000 to the scope. I've excluded it from Phase 1 below. Tell me which direction you want to go and I'll update the number.
Most successful directory platforms launch with direct links first, then add native booking once they have traction. I'd recommend starting without it.
50% at kickoff, 50% at launch. Most common. Keeps both sides accountable.
One-third at kickoff, mid-project, and launch. Available on Phase 1 builds over $9,000.
Spread across 6 months with a 5% processing fee applied to the total. Ask for details.
For context: most agencies quote $40,000 or more for a marketplace build like this. The difference is the tech stack — I build lean on Cloudflare and Supabase, the same infrastructure that runs ARO Index. You get the same platform quality at a fraction of the cost.
Phase 1 includes 90 days of post-launch maintenance at no additional cost. After that, ongoing maintenance keeps the platform healthy as you grow.
Discovery and architecture. Finalize scope, tech decisions, feature prioritization.
Core build. Profile system, search, Stripe subscriptions, admin dashboard.
Premium features, featured placement logic, testing, refinement.
Launch prep, domain setup, soft launch, handoff and training.
ARO Index is a live SaaS platform running on the same tech stack — Cloudflare, Supabase, Stripe. I built it solo. It works. You're not paying for a team to learn on the job.
Most agencies take 6 to 12 months. I work in 8 to 12 weeks. The difference is no overhead, no layers, no project managers between you and the person writing the code.
The architecture supports local launch, Southwest expansion, and national growth without a rebuild. Cloudflare handles the performance. Supabase handles the data.
You're in Goose Creek. I'm on Johns Island. Real availability, real timezone, real accountability. Not a foreign dev shop, not a large agency where you're a small client.
On your secret idea: You mentioned there's something that makes this wildly marketable and you weren't ready to share it yet. That's completely fair. When you're ready, share it and I'll assess whether it changes the scope or price. My instinct is it probably doesn't add much if it's a positioning or content strategy play — but if it's a technical feature, I'll need to factor it in. The Phase 1 price above holds regardless.
Book a 45-minute working session and we'll finalize scope, answer the booking question, and get a contract out the same week.
Therese Grittner · therese@tagmakessc.com · 843-608-8724
