I recently took on a client and quoted for a website design & development for $100-150... After a few hours of chatting with the client, he quickly realized that he didn't need my services and he can build the website with the freely available resources available. Firstly, I know I did a disservice to myself (as a business) by pointing out the freely available resources. Instead I should have given a quote and left it at that, but even when I asked for a small fee for the advice I gave him which saved him some $100-150, he currently doesn't think my advice doesn't worth the small fee... I'm not here to complain about this particular customer, but I would just like to find out what everyone thinks on this topic. Do you think I did the right thing by giving away free advice? Is it ethical to service a customer even if you knew they could do it themselves and they probably would do it themselves? Would you warn you customer that they're venture might not be successful? Thanks everyone.
I don't know if I speak for everyone here... But business is BUSINESS! I want to make money, and if the customer requires a service in which I can make money from and I can provide that service, I shut my mouth and get on with it! Especially in such a cut throat market as web design, you have to take all the jobs you can get! Just my two cents
I guess you're right Barry, I think my studies have made me soft and think too much of the clients benefit instead of my own. From now on, i'm going to do my best to get a deposit of some sort before giving out any kind of information, and if a customer needs some sort of research done and wants to know things... they can pay for it. Thanks Barry.
exstatic where in Au are you? Umm, i'm not sure how to answer your question. If you've seen the rates here on DP it's practically pennies compared to what freelancers get in australia... I guess I should also look for work locally, thanks for reminding me exstatic
Yes, look locally! I think you are cutting yourself and the industry short by only charging $150! For $150.. I would think it would be no more than 1-2 pages slapped together in dreamweaver/frontpage.. which of course the client could do themselves in MS Word. What people pay for is your expertise, how to optimise the images and the page, format content for SEO, set up emails, hosting, layouts, css.. There is quite a bit of work involved in making a 'good' website... if you are forced to do it for $150 then you are looking for clients in the wrong places, or your work doesn't warrant any more. Good Luck
Actually, Vahshi.. looks like all you are doing is install wordpress and put a free theme on it (as per your Sydney web design page).. no wonder your client said they could do it themselves!
Firstly it's Vahsi000 (and no, it's not my reall name). Secondly, if you did a quick background check on me here on DP, you wouldn't have assumed that i'm only capable of using free WP templates. I've actually built a beautifully design WP theme myself. I'm both a Designer & Developer with knowledge of: W3C Compliant XHTML / CSS Coding Accessibility / Usability Understanding SEO & PPC and also an OsCommerce Specialist I could've kept going with the list but i didn't see a point. Exstatic, what i am trying to prove to you is that I am well and truly capable of both designing and developing small to medium sized websites. The thing is, I think you don't have enough experience on DP's markets (yes I'm assuming, but i'm also going by the facts of the date you joined up on DP and your iTrader experience). Here at DP, I haven't seen any $1000-3000 jobs that only involved designing a website and developing the front-end. But what you might find here is threads where people are offering to develop XHTML/CSS for $20-40 each... BTW, where did you think I got my client from? I didn't find my client locally (if I had I would've charged 10 times the amount I charge here)
Yeah, you did the right thing. Don't think about those dishonest clients. They are every where. I advice to pretend that you're going to give paid service and if you felt the customer is honest don't get all the money from him or charge him a little and if he was like the client that you are talking about, charge him with full price. Dishonest ppl are every where. Anyway, I say thanks instead of him to you for the guidance.