[consulting] Gouging Stupid Clients

[Fred Jones]

>> On the other hand "value based pricing" is a well accepted practice.
>>
>> I think the most important thing is that your client knows whether you
>> are charging per hour or per value-added. If you are honest with your
>> client it's never sleazy.
>
> Greg nailed it. The client obviously derives value in being able to delegate
> the work, particularly if they've been trained on how to do it twice, and
> continue to delegate. There's a cost:value point at which they'll decide to
> take it in... if you are interested in finding out what that point is (or
> just interested in convincing them to make the updates because it's not what
> you want to do with your time) then re-negotiate and raise your price.

I was only joking when I suggested to charge 400 Yen for a half hour
job, which is normally 50. But the above two responses are what I had
in mind. I'm not interested to cheat anyone, but I know that with my
clients, different ones are willing to pay different prices. I have
one who has repeatedly tried to find a cheaper consultant (and I would
be fine if she did) but she always ends up coming back to me. She
likes how I work and I think that most folks find her annoying to work
with, so the fact that I tolerate her probably makes her happy also.
So she sends 5-10 minute tasks every few days and I charge her for a
quarter hour each time. But I also know that I can't raise my rate
with her as she thinks it's really high as it is.

But I have other clients who are more professional in their approach
and they have more difficult work and they are happy to pay a higher
rate.

The client I wrote about initially are nice people, but know nothing
about computers, and the work is sort of boring and sometimes annoying
(if I'm in the middle of other things) so to charge them 100 Yen for
what will take me a half hour I think is fine. They won't mind to pay
100 because they got the edits they wanted for their site and it's
entirely reasonable that the work is worth 100 Yen. Could be it would
take someone else 2 hours, if it was their first time using Drupal.

And were they to find another person who would do it for 50 Yen, I
wouldn't be upset. :)

Thanks.