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I just received an email enquiry from someone who made the point quite strongly that he did not have a lot of money to spend. This happens quite frequently.
When I looked at this one I couldn't be bothered with spending the time on the enquiry so I told the guy I was too busy to take it on and wished him luck. I did this because I have had my time wasted in the past by people who go out of their way to tell me that they don't have much money and who want me to work for nothing.
Do you process enquiries like this?
I do one of two things...
First........ if it is a non-commercial site and can be argued that it is a "good cause" site then I will sometimes offer to do it in return for being linked and listed as a known sponsor of the cause.....I will put a Junior guy on it or do it from home myself depending on the size. I have some great inbound links to my developing company as a result of taking on some charitable causes.
Second....... if it is a starting up business I try to sell them on something that they can afford and gets them started... you know a couple pages for local business searches.... some email aliases.....Contact info...... Then I talk to them about the future. It is always better to take someones wish list and cut it down to "currently possible" and "future possible".
When their budget can handle more work then that is when I will do it. They can't always afford all the bells and whistles but they might be able to someday and when that day comes I want them asking me for the work.
Even with some charities I will talk to them when a new budget comes around to see if they want to spend any of it with me... they are almost always receptive as I have "done them a favor" in the past.
If it is someone with a cool idea and no startup money I don't usually deal with that..... You know... someone who wants to make a Blogger site and have all these "cool" and "neato" ideas that I have seen on every other site I can think of.
