[consulting] Lowball offers

[Tom Geller]

Gotham City Drupal <kelly at gothamcitydrupal.com> writes:

> Your only hope is to find someone who does Drupal for fun in their spare time and/or is financially independent with no other time obligations. And those people dont exist

I disagree. Such people are rare, but they do exist. If I were an ambitious teenager, for example, I'd be all over this.

> cheap = suck. Period. 

Also disagreed. There may be a correlation, but even that's arguable. And the correlation != 1.00.

Thomas <tmw100 at me.com> writes:

> as there are people willing to prostitute themselves for next to nothing

If it's prostitution, then everyone on this list is a prostitute. Name-calling is unnecessary.

> this problem will not go away. 

Is it really a problem? If these lowballers do a bad job, you'll get the work eventually -- with a better-educated client. If they do a good job, that means the market has shifted, and the rest of us are charging too much.

Agreed: Ignorant low-ballers add noise to the atmosphere and can undermine worthwhile initiatives. And organizations looking for ridiculously low-cost work are annoying. But there's no need for us to criticize. If, in fact, the buyers want too much or the sellers deliver too little, they'll discover that to their own detriment. Our task is to keep proving our worth to clients who appreciate it -- while watching these lowball jobs for possible changes in the market. We can learn from both their failures and their successes.

---
          Tom Geller  *  Oberlin, Ohio  *  415-317-1805
             Writer/Editor * http://www.tomgeller.com
    articles, marketing, training materials, user guides, books