Making the mental leap to prosperity: It's okay to charge a premium for high quality!

G

Gertex

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Jan 21, 2011
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Over the last couple of years I have learned a couple of valuable lessons and I figure since this is the gay webmaster forum it is worthwhile to be shared.

12 months ago, if you would have asked me about building a decent website for you and asked for pricing, I probably would have done it for $500-$750. Wordpress blog, nice theme, 4-8 hours skinning and building the pages - PROFIT. Great quality work for a fair price!

Knowing how much competition is out there with good people doing great work, I was always worried about pricing myself out of the market. For crying out loud, A-H6 is skinning sites and building AMAZING landing pages here for $300-$400 that quality wise, I would have a hard time touching.

Several months ago, a what many people here call an 'Agency client' who is also a close personal family friend asked me how much I would charge him for a quick website project. Since I know his company is well off, the quote was immediately $1,000. He looked at me, shook his head and told me that the company they have been using until now, charges them $12,000. So it would only be fair for me to do the same job at half price.

"GULP! Half Price???? Uhmnn… that's …. How many $$$ - SERIOUSLY??????"

"Sure! You are getting the project to me for half price - my company is tickled pink, I look good and you make money. What's not to like????"

Well, I did the project - delivered early and the job was above/beyond their expectations. Then a curious thing happened… Word has gotten around. Yeah… He's is doing a GREAT job for a CHEAP price….

Long story short… I'm doing 2 projects this month at those prices. Getting more inquiries every week… Word of mouth...

Because I charge those prices - folks are now actually taking me serious and give me MORE business. Not one of those 'fly by night' operations… Great quality… minimum hassle…

Something else changed… The attitude of my customers…. Where before, people were constantly asking for me to drop the price $10-$20 and let them create the Privacy page themselves… now, I hardly EVER get any questions like that. Less hassle, better customers, more money…. What???

Reason I'm writing this up though, the biggest leap I had to do was mental. Knowing how 'cheap' I can get things through the BST section here or other places I was always afraid to charge more. However, people do not mind paying for quality.

You are providing a great quality product for a fair price with a minimum amount of hassle. People are willing to pay for quality because in the end…. They are actually getting more VALUE for their money.

Intellectually, you KNOW that - in REALITY - you are afraid of raising your prices because you are worried about loosing business. However, the time spent on customer acquisition now is LESS (I only need ONE customer instead of FIVE or more) while making the same amount of money or MORE. Workload is less as well…. Go figure…

So, to end this post…. Do not be afraid to charge premium for high quality work. Let the low cost providers duke it out trying to run themselves out of business. Focus on your TARGET market… Pursue them…. PROFIT!
 


Well said Gertex. If you're not selling to your cheezy friends on WF, you can charge what you are really worth!
Congratulations on reaching the ranks of the ballin'.

And just to prove that what you say is really true see this.. "Gay Webmaster forum".
 
well I hate to be the party pooper. I like the idea you are preaching, but lets be honest here. you basically got lucky because your friends company was getting ripped off at 12k and you got in on a deal for 6k. And you didn't charge that price you were offered that price. The real lesson here should be. If you are a website creator, get the hell of wickedfire and go look for these kinds of companies the OP is now doing work for.
 
Gertex said:
Over the last couple of years I have learned a couple of valuable lessons and I figure since this is the gay webmaster forum it is worthwhile to be shared.

12 months ago, if you would have asked me about building a decent website for you and asked for pricing, I probably would have done it for $500-$750. Wordpress blog, nice theme, 4-8 hours skinning and building the pages - PROFIT. Great quality work for a fair price!

Knowing how much competition is out there with good people doing great work, I was always worried about pricing myself out of the market. For crying out loud, A-H6 is skinning sites and building AMAZING landing pages here for $300-$400 that quality wise, I would have a hard time touching.

Several months ago, a what many people here call an 'Agency client' who is also a close personal family friend asked me how much I would charge him for a quick website project. Since I know his company is well off, the quote was immediately $1,000. He looked at me, shook his head and told me that the company they have been using until now, charges them $12,000. So it would only be fair for me to do the same job at half price.

"GULP! Half Price???? Uhmnn… that's …. How many $$$ - SERIOUSLY??????"

"Sure! You are getting the project to me for half price - my company is tickled pink, I look good and you make money. What's not to like????"

Well, I did the project - delivered early and the job was above/beyond their expectations. Then a curious thing happened… Word has gotten around. Yeah… He's is doing a GREAT job for a CHEAP price….

Long story short… I'm doing 2 projects this month at those prices. Getting more inquiries every week… Word of mouth...

Because I charge those prices - folks are now actually taking me serious and give me MORE business. Not one of those 'fly by night' operations… Great quality… minimum hassle…

Something else changed… The attitude of my customers…. Where before, people were constantly asking for me to drop the price $10-$20 and let them create the Privacy page themselves… now, I hardly EVER get any questions like that. Less hassle, better customers, more money…. What???

Reason I'm writing this up though, the biggest leap I had to do was mental. Knowing how 'cheap' I can get things through the BST section here or other places I was always afraid to charge more. However, people do not mind paying for quality.

You are providing a great quality product for a fair price with a minimum amount of hassle. People are willing to pay for quality because in the end…. They are actually getting more VALUE for their money.

Intellectually, you KNOW that - in REALITY - you are afraid of raising your prices because you are worried about loosing business. However, the time spent on customer acquisition now is LESS (I only need ONE customer instead of FIVE or more) while making the same amount of money or MORE. Workload is less as well…. Go figure…

So, to end this post…. Do not be afraid to charge premium for high quality work. Let the low cost providers duke it out trying to run themselves out of business. Focus on your TARGET market… Pursue them…. PROFIT!
Click to expand...
I've discovered this in quite a few things. But, it boils down to one thing: Thinking Bigger & Asking For More.

Boldness pays off.
 
erifdekciw said:
well I hate to be the party pooper. I like the idea you are preaching, but lets be honest here. you basically got lucky because your friends company was getting ripped off at 12k and you got in on a deal for 6k. And you didn't charge that price you were offered that price. The real lesson here should be. If you are a website creator, get the hell of wickedfire and go look for these kinds of companies the OP is now doing work for.
Click to expand...

Not a party pooper at all. It taught me the lesson by 'accident'... totally good with that. I got lucky through the connection with my buddy that knew of the quality work I'm doing.

That is exactly the reason I wanted to share it though, so others might benefit from it. Don't wait to be 'lucky' but take action chasing after 'different' clients. Have the confidence to approach bigger firms and to network by going to meetings from your local Chamber of Commerce, etc. and create your own luck.

I think the lesson is universal ... even within WF. Look at the content creators in the BST section. You have some providers that have taken the next step and are charging MORE then the rest, deliver quality work and are booked for weeks.
 
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yeah... even small agencies charge $5,000 - 10,000 for pretty basic dynamic sites. it's both hilarious and sad so many freelance developers sell themselves short. i've been watching that happen for years now. a large ad agency i worked at charged sprint about $20,000 for something a small agency would charge $5,000 for (and that was 10 years ago). i always laugh when someone wants a site for $500-1000. not even worth my time.
 
It's true. I own a retail store, and the shop next door to me sells high end clothing from Sweden. The cheapest thing in the store is about $100 and that's a plain tshirt, you're looking at $800 for a winter coat, $500 for a suit jacket etc. They only have a sale once a year.

Meanwhile every other store regular clothing store on the block has giant red 50% off signs almost all year round, and the big department stores are reporting the worst sales figures in 50 years.

The owner of the expensive store told me their sales numbers are increasing every month, while everyone else and retail in general is going down the shitter. The store is empty most of the time but the few clients they do get make it worthwhile. It's the way to go I reckon if you have the balls to power through the initial period of zero customers until you become established.
 
Very nice. I think I still have problems sometimes charging as much as I'm worth. People will never pay you more than you ask for (except in this case apparently) so don't be afraid to ask for more!

Also, cheap clients are usually the biggest pains to deal with.
 
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