Lowballing
Never heard of it until the other day. Highballing - yes.
Well it means giving a prospect that pleads poverty a good deal. In my case, a 25% - 50% discount. Not any more.
I’ve done it a few times and for people I know, it’s not normally a problem but for those I do not know, it’s always a problem. I have been making websites on a commercial basis for 12 years and during that time have had a variety of experiences with clients. One thing that I have found to be about universal is that with every job there is a certain amount of overhead - hassles above and beyond the original site spec. This takes several forms. The usual is ’scope creep’ when the client starts to ask for more and more on the site, bit by little bit. Of course there is always room to add an extra page or three or a bit of Javascript. Suddenly however, there is an epiphany when you realize that you have done 30% more work on this website design than you anticipated or was agreed with the client - and it’s time you’re not likely to get paid for.
Another overhead is terminal equivocation - can you change that header for this; no, I liked the previous one better, after you spend an hour or more getting it to look good. And after the site is up, ‘Can you set up my emails/I cannot get any mail’ etc., ‘I have 12 better pics than the ones we used on the website’. ‘Here is some new content for XYZ pages’.
Now, if the client has paid the rate for the job, this is all part & parcel of it. But, if you have discounted the job by 50% and you get this, it is really annoying - and the cheaper the job, the more hassles I seem to get - out of proportion to full price clients. Because you’re resentful, the job the client gets isn’t as good as otherwise would get at full price.
The Consequences of Lowballing
The chief consequence of lowballing is that the client has less respect for the work involved and your ability the less he pays. Further, all subsequent work from that client is expected to be discounted too. The relationship between myself and my lowballed client almost always turns sour to some extent so your name gets bandied about as someone not to do business with.
Result: I don’t lowball any more unless it’s to a friend, and after the riot act is read out first.
I, like most other website designers have worked out a price per job and I know that once I get a commission, I take ownership of it, constantly husbanding the website after it has been published, tweaking here and tweaking there to get it both more usable and higher up Google, even if I know I am not getting paid for the work. It’s professional pride, like taking on an orphan pup. My efforts, I know, not only are not going to be compensated but the client will not appreciate the results.
Owner Operators
This collection is normally the chief culprit. Not only are they tyre-kickers and nit-pickers but they normally have champagne tastes and beer budgets. ‘Can you make the website like this one?’. ‘this one’ normally turns out to be a big operation with not only a sophisticated website but, on further digging, a web team to keep the whole lot going.
The reply is for a budget of $15,000 please. Their reply is ‘We’re just a startup and are having some cash flow problems’. It turns out that the money they spent on other things would have been far better spent on a decent website first to get established on search engines and also get some business in.
It doesn’t work. ‘Now we are boracic, let’s think about the website’. (boracic - Cockney rhyming slang - boracic lint - skint).
More about owner operators in my next blog.