Thursday, February 17, 2005
Computer Guys Have Expenses And Want Something Leftover Too
On a whiteboard in my office, I have a list of places that do similar work and their hourly rates, and at the bottom of the list I have mine. They are $120, $99, $85, and $80.
Today someone sought me out because the $99 place was so expensive, and they estimated cleaning up the machine, malware infested and otherwise in need of attention, would be a three to five hour job.
Instead of being pleased to be saving 20%, I got begged not to charge so much. I was humorous about it, but it offends me. I’m sure the CPA whose employee it was would think I was nuts if I begged him to charge only half his going rates. I can’t imagine someone being all shocked on learning an attorney I work for charges $120 or more.
It’s not that I don’t expect that some people will consider that a lot of money. It’s just that a surprising number, even in business, don’t expect to have to pay real money for computer-related services. Even I think of it as a lot, because of the price level time warp factor I was discussing with Deb recently. Otherwise I might very well increase it to match what my math says would be more appropriate. Not to mention my annoyance when I encounter people who charge more and are less capable. However, competing on price says to leave it the same as it’s been since 1997.
Anyway, I managed to clean things up quite sufficiently in under two hours; none of this three to five stuff. Go me! Now back to the work I interrupted…