Jon Lukas | about me

I'm an interactive developer and marketer with over a decade of experience. I helped transform a groundbreaking web analytics software company ('ClickTracks') from a small, basement-based startup into a multi-million dollar acquisition (Lyris, Inc.). I acted as sales engineer, wrote and edited marketing copy, generated ideas for marketing as well as for the software itself, and produced numerous animated, narrated sales demos and support tutorials.

As an independent contractor, I have created music soundtracks, implemented interactive web elements, recorded voice-overs, created sales demos, tutorials and videos, prototyped and designed mobile applications, and built e-learning solutions. My clients have included Honeywell, KLA-Tencor, Xilinx, Tatu Digital Media, 33rd Street Records (Tower Records), FOX Racing Shox, and Global MindShift.

Policies:

Scheduling

Please let me know if you're planning to enlist my services, and I'll be glad to 'pencil you in' with no cost or obligation. I'll let you know if another client is interested in my services during that timeframe before committing. However, if you make definite arrangements with me, I'll be sure to make myself available, and you'll be committed to hiring me for those hours or days. I may require partial payment up front depending on the circumstances.

Availability

Sometimes I can handle your requests in short order, but often I am booked for weeks or even months in advance, so please try to schedule accordingly, and let me know what your plans are. Even if you don't have an exact date set for a project to be worked on or completed, it's a good idea to let me know if advance if you're planning on having me work on it.

Deadlines

I plan carefully and set deadlines that I can meet. While working on your project, I am very mindful of your schedule and launch dates. However, when necessary artwork or other materials are not provided on schedule, it may affect my ability to meet deadlines.

For this reason, I avoid setting deadlines when there is work pending from other people, but sometimes it is necessary. In those cases, my deadlines are set with the understanding that all the artwork and other materials I need will be delivered as promised. If any of these materials are late, and affect my deadline, I will let you know immediately, and will establish a new deadline.

Response Time

I will normally reply to emails within a few hours or a day. If you need more immediate availability during a certain period of time, I encourage you to schedule with me in advance so I can make sure to be available to you constantly at the times that it's important for your project(s). In those cases I can make myself available on IM and/or phone during the specified times.

I am a one-person business. This means that I don't have someone at the 'front desk' that can answer your questions and take your requests while I'm busy working on another project. So if you cannot reach me immediately, it's probably because I'm deeply involved in a project for another client.

Invoicing/Payment

Payment is expected within 30 days of submitting an invoice. If you need clarification or feel there's a problem or error with the invoice, I expect it to be brought to my attention within one week (for the record, there has never been such an error).

I would rather not have to take the time to draw up and enforce contracts with late fees/finance charges, etc. Depending on the particular project I may request that you pay half, or even all, of the expected cost of a project before work begins.

Data Backup

On my own (unbilled) time, I will always create multiple backups of the work I do for you that is currently in progress (including offsite backups). These backups are typically run daily, although sometimes even more often during important projects with lots of changes.

There may an exception where you might be charged a small amount when the backups/archives are very large (many gigabytes - typically video content). If such a charge is applied (which is very rare), you will be informed in advance, and it will appear on your invoice as a separate item.

I guarantee that I won't ever lose your data associated with active projects, but my liability is limited to the dollar amount originally paid for me to create any subsequently lost data. Consequential damage is not covered.

In other words, if I lose something I'm currently working on for you due to hard drive failure, theft, fire, flood, or any other reason (VERY unlikely given my backup policies), you don't have to pay for it.

Archives of finished work are kept as a convenience. I'll hold on to your data indefinitely (typically a single copy on DVD-ROM), but it's not as fully protected (no off-site backup) as in-progress projects and is not guaranteed.

Encryption

Some client files are kept non-encrypted on my hard drives and archives. Off-site physical backups are always encrypted, and off-site internet backups are physically secured, and the data is transferred in an encrypted fashion (SFTP). If you need additional security, I can, upon request, keep all copies of your data encrypted. I can also secure-delete (wipe) files when I'm finished using them, if you prefer, rather than archiving them.