Undead_Hunter - 8:55 pm on Feb 2, 2004 (gmt 0)

I've faced sticker shock in this business, too. We've gotten around it by listing what we do, and the price beside it, not putting in the hourly.

There's two other historical problems with hourly that I've mentioned before:

1) The better I am at something, the faster I should be. Therefore, the better I get, the LESS MONEY I make compared to someone less skilled charging the same rate. Wha...?

2) Comparing hourly rates - maybe it takes the guy or gal charging half of what we do per hour takes 2 hours to do the same job, because I know several shortcuts and/or my productivity is greater!

Of course, I've half-joked here before that we can work for $10 an hour, too. But it will take us 10 times as long to do any project. :-)

BTW, "sticker shock" from a client can be a ploy, too, particularly if you "give off any fear" about charging what you're charging. Some people are just sharks that way; they'll feign surprise, or in some cases mild outrage at the price to see if they can get you to lower yours. If its not a ploy, then frankly, they aren't professional, and you owe them nothing. Least of all your continued business.

Had this happen to me. Drove 2 hours to a see a client on a paid referral from a GREAT client of ours. Talked on the phone first, of course, and they were eager to get started.

I got there, and this 60 year old guy made me an "example" for a new, young sales member. First they made me wait almost an hour (I was naive at that point, I'd never wait again...) Then, 10 minutes into it, he tried to get me to lower my price by 1/4. I danced around that, played nice through the rest of the meeting... and left quite angry. The new sales guy was pretty embarassed by the whole deal, you could tell... anyway, naturally I declined working with them. And they *still* don't have a website to this day!

M.