Need help planning for mixing/mastering an album

Hi,

After going through fix-the-mix a couple times, I realized that I’d rather spend my time writing songs than mixing them. I’m gearing up to release an album and I would greatly appreciate some thoughts from the professionals here on the following questions:

1) Approx. how much should I expect to pay to mix and master a 4-minute instrumental with about a dozen stems? Or how many hours would it take?

2) Is it reasonable to assume that someone familiar with/passionate about my genre of music (smooth jazz) would deliver better results than someone else, assuming equal technical skills?

3) My songs are entirely created in musescore. I’ve spent a decent amount of time finding quality soundfonts for the various instruments. Despite this, some instruments such as alto sax don’t sound that great. Would applying appropriate VST’s to improve the quality of those instruments be considered part of the mixing/mastering process? Or are there other steps I should take prior to handover for mixing?

Thanks so much!

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