Rates & Payment

How do you determine your rates?

We offer fair rates that are based on North American industry standards for communications products and projects, as well as considerations related to the value of the final product, the time put into developing it, and the expertise required to deliver quality work.

Do you offer any discounted rates?

We offer discounted rates to organizations defending our planet as part of our Climate Defender Program. You can read more about that program and our climate-focused work here.

How much time do I have to pay my invoice?

Billing standards in the age of instant, digital payment processing now typically require seven days turnaround on payment of an invoice. We prefer to give our clients more time and reflect a typical payroll schedule, requiring payment within two weeks unless otherwise stated.

Why does my invoice require payment upfront?

Payment for our à la carte services is due after the completion of the work. Due to its scale, a portion of project-based work must be paid before work begins (usually 50% of the total invoice). However, we’re happy to iron out a different payment and product delivery schedule that works best for your budget and timelines. To retain our services on an as-needed basis through an ongoing retainer contract, payment must be made in full before any work commences.

What payment methods do you accept?

We accept payment by email transfer, cheque, and direct deposit.

What happens if my payment is late?

We believe a strong working relationship is founded on mutual respect between the client and the service provider. We show our respect for our clients by delivering quality work, and we expect our clients to show the same respect by making payments on time. However, we understand that things come up. To avoid late fees, please speak to us in advance.

Working Relationship

Does Lightbulb provide around-the-clock client support?

No. We believe that meaningful productivity requires work/life balance, both for our team and our clients. This commitment to the right-to-disconnect means we don’t provide our services on-call, during evenings, or on weekends. Occasionally, we will rush projects, applying a 25% rush-delivery fee to the invoice.

How much face-time can our team expect from Lightbulb Narrative?

We believe meetings are most effective when they have a clear purpose and a tight agenda. That’s why we use email to touch base and provide updates to our clients, while reserving virtual meetings for information-gathering, reviewing draft products, and driving decision-making.

We will always lay out the number of meetings you can expect from us in every estimate and invoice we produce. We are also happy to expand your service package to include additional meeting time at our regular advisory rate of $300/hour.

Will Lightbulb meet with our team in person?

No. As a virtual company, we engage our clients via email, phone, and secure video conferencing. This work model helps us to decrease the carbon impact of our work together. We’ll never bill you for overhead costs that large-scale firms pass on to clients and the environment, like expansive office space or unnecessary travel.

What types of clients do you work with?

Lightbulb Narrative is proud to work with social entrepreneurs, small businesses, non-profit organizations, and other partners whose driving force is to inject some good into the world.

Do you support clients outside of Canada?

Yes! Lightbulb Narrative regularly works with and comes highly recommended by leaders in government, public policy, and business across North America. We look forward to working with teams in other jurisdictions around the world as we continue to grow and expand as a business.

Confidentiality & Security

What video software will we use during our meetings?

We use Google Meet so that we can meet securely and make use of meeting recordings, auto-transcription, digital whiteboarding, and virtual breakout rooms as needed.

Where auto-transcriptions are not required for the information-gathering portion of our work, we’re also happy to use other popular meeting software options such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Webex, GoToMeeting, and Skype.

What file types do you use?

We make use of Microsoft programs such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint as well as PDF. When a client does not have access to the Microsoft Suite or a project requires a ‘live’ collaborative option, we use Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. We make social media graphics available in JPEG and PNG formats.

How will you share work products?

We send all of our work product via encrypted email or by Google Drive which is protected by servers using AES-128 symmetric encryption. Presentations are shared over a secure Google Meet session and emailed in PDF format to ensure formatting remains intact. We can also create password-protected documents by request.

What other security measures to do you take to protect our work?

Lightbulb Narrative employs firewalls, VPN connection, and WPA2 with AES encryption. We also make use of two-step verification through an authenticator service that provides unique one-time sign-in codes that change every 60 seconds.

Will you share details about our organization or work?

We love sharing client stories and the impact our work is delivering with our broader network. However, some projects are more confidential in nature and some clients require greater privacy. If you indicate you would rather keep our work together fully confidential, we will not share your logo, project story, or details of our work on our website, social media channels, future client proposals, or in meetings as a reference point.