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I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

idiallo.com

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Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#221

Post by zamadatix »

crispyambulance wrote: post #217
stronglikedan wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But also, charge accordingly, if you don't have to post your prices (as your parents probably did). A lawyer is likely willing to pay a lot more for the same website than a tailor shop, and I'll gladly take both of their money.

Yes, "charge accordingly" means different things to different customers. My parents never advertised their tailor shop, it was all "word-of-mouth" business. After the pricing jack-up, every customer got charged what my mother felt they could pay (with a very loose regard for consistency and some allowance for negotiation). I used to think that was sketchy. It wasn't until much later that I realized that B2B enterpris…

That big business does something isn't and indicator of whether it's sketchy or not. I wouldn't even say the comparison maps 1:1 anyways.

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#223

Post by lixtra »

koala_man wrote: post #74

As a teenager I once got paid a flat rate of $300 for what turned out to be a ten minute job with Excel vlookups. Funny that my hourly rate peaked at 17.

You probably saved the company 1h of work per week for some years. Finding another expert would have taken them half a day of searching. So it made economic sense from their part as well. Did you learn to seek such situations to profit?

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#224

Post by crispyambulance »

zamadatix wrote: post #221
crispyambulance wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, "charge accordingly" means different things to different customers. My parents never advertised their tailor shop, it was all "word-of-mouth" business. After the pricing jack-up, every customer got charged what my mother felt they could pay (with a very loose regard for consistency and some allowance for negotiation). I used to think that was sketchy. It wasn't until much later that I realized that B2B enterpris…

That big business does something isn't and indicator of whether it's sketchy or not. I wouldn't even say the comparison maps 1:1 anyways.

You're right but whatever it is, that's what "brings in the bacon" for a lot of businesses.

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#225

Post by crooked-v »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #220
prof1le wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were mentioned studies in the book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" that mirrored what your parents experienced. Long story short, a jeweler was trying to move some turquoise and told an assistant to sell them at half price while she was gone. The assistant accidentally doubled the price, but the stones still sold immediately. Turns out there's a phenomenon where humans automatically associate price to…

Same for brown diamonds.

s/brown/"chocolate"/

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#226

Post by wonderwonder »

_bxg1 wrote: post #61
sharkweek wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Big companies (rather, people at big companies) WANT to spend money on this kind of stuff for all sorts of reasons. -A team might have use-it-or-lose-it budget, so they have to spend it on something, and a contractor might be the lucky recipient! -Tax purposes! -Spending a lot on a contractor gives them someone to "fire" when they need to explain why something wasn't getting done or something went poorly! The list go…

One would think the use-it-or-lose-it problem would've been solved by now. It's so obviously dysfunctional. Is there really no better way to determine budget?

In government (usa) it absolutely still exists. As the financial period ends each department spends hugely and really wastefully to ensure their full budget is spent. Its actually quite infuriating.

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#227

Post by Bokanovsky »

crispyambulance wrote: post #178

My parents had been running their own tailor shop in the 80's, barely making ends meet, pulling in less than $20K a year. It wasn't for lack of business, father was a master tailor trained in Italy and capable of elite bespoke craftsmanship. They had as much business as they could handle. The problem was that they were charging what they thought the work was worth rather than what their customers were willing to pay.…

This is a classic example of a Veblen good [1].

"Veblen goods are types of luxury goods for which the quantity demanded increases as the price increases, an apparent contradiction of the law of demand, resulting in an upward-sloping demand curve. Some goods become more desirable because of their high prices."

The suits are expensive, so they must be good. It's also a status signal to others that you can afford such goods. (Edit minor typo).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#228

Post by lazyant »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #220
prof1le wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were mentioned studies in the book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" that mirrored what your parents experienced. Long story short, a jeweler was trying to move some turquoise and told an assistant to sell them at half price while she was gone. The assistant accidentally doubled the price, but the stones still sold immediately. Turns out there's a phenomenon where humans automatically associate price to…

Same for brown diamonds.

black pearls too no?

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#229

Post by tsss »

derefr wrote: post #205
dymk wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm gonna disagree that hourly billing makes no sense for the contractor. He clearly just didn't charge enough per hour; $75/hour is way too low for contract work, and his $21k could have been $56k at $200/hour. What if the project was billed at a fixed cost, he negotiated $21k, but the project took a year to complete because the company moved so slowly? That'd be a terrible salary. He'd have to quit and somehow bill…

I don't think that the parent means that you shouldn't be structuring your billing to be per hour/day/week of work. Rather, their point is that you shouldn't be doing math like this: 1. "I think I'm worth $75/hr" 2. "the job will take 40 hours" 3. "I'll charge $3000 for it" but rather, like this: 1. "I think they would be willing to pay me 40k for this, and I think the project should take 40 hours" 3. "Therefore, I'l…

Well, the problem is you have to estimate how much they are willing to pay and this varies wildly.

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#230

Post by TeMPOraL »

crispyambulance wrote: post #217
stronglikedan wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But also, charge accordingly, if you don't have to post your prices (as your parents probably did). A lawyer is likely willing to pay a lot more for the same website than a tailor shop, and I'll gladly take both of their money.

Yes, "charge accordingly" means different things to different customers. My parents never advertised their tailor shop, it was all "word-of-mouth" business. After the pricing jack-up, every customer got charged what my mother felt they could pay (with a very loose regard for consistency and some allowance for negotiation). I used to think that was sketchy. It wasn't until much later that I realized that B2B enterpris…

> I used to think that was sketchy. It wasn't until much later that I realized that B2B enterprise sales people do that stuff ALL THE TIME even with their onerous kpi's, forecasting and fiscal quarter expectations!

Depending on how it's done, it still is, and enterprise salesmen doing it doesn't make it less so. As a customer, I don't necessarily seek absolute minimum price, but I want it to be a fair price that I can agree on voluntarily - that means, I don't want to be subject of a bunch of manipulative sales techniques during pricing negotiations. Moreover, individual pricing used at scale makes it impossible to compare prices, or even develop a sense of what price is fair price. I actively prefer buying from vendors who list prices publicly, so by going the individual price route, you might be losing business of me and people like me.

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