It is not have to get business. It is not having to create designs. It is not having to code the sites. It by far has to be keeping the customers happy. It seems, from my experience, that the most difficult customers to appease is those who pay the least. By no means am I saying that I do not value their business, I Do, but they do seem to make it difficult to maintain any profit margins at all. The price quotes I give out are directly proportional to the amount of work I do, while that sounds like an obvious statement, many people don’t realize that $200.00-500.00 will get you a basic html site, the typical small business site if you will. Now at that price I don’t mind creating basic sites that have the typical, about us, contact us, information type websites (I honestly believe that this are the most effective for most small businesses). But some how once the quote gets accepted, and the contract signed and the customer pays 60% of the final cost upfront the troubles seem to begin. Out of nowhere they get delusions of grandeur, and the site exponentially multiplies into a ginormous living organism that eats and breathes development time. Suddenly they want features such as customer databases, and e-commerce type sections, multiple revisions, and other more “complicated” features. Can I do these things? You bet ya! What about at the cost of $200-500.00? Not so much! Suddenly amongst all of these additional features my profit margins shrinks to well below minimum wage standards. That is a problem, I have bills that need to be paid both inside and outside of the business.
I am a firm believer that in order to be successful in any business employees and employers need to realize that the products they produce are second to customer service. Clients have to leave the experience happy. So now we have come full circle. To what point do you sacrafice your earnings to keep your customers happy? At what point can a company tell a consumer that the job in which they have been employed is going to cost more than they orginally budgeted? I would love to get some of your insights. Hopefully you can help me solve this conundrum.
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