A potential client rang me up yesterday, (and I must say she was a lovely lady!) but her first and only question was “how much do you charge? She then told me that she had rung a few other agencies and they had been extremely helpful. In fact, there was one girl who was going to design a website, help her with all the SEO (search engine optimisation), write copy for the site, and submit press release articles – all for a grand total of $500.00. I had to sit back and ask myself – how is this possible? Can this actually be done? What will the end product look like and how will it reflect on her business? The answer is simple. Yes it can be done – but it might not do the best job possible and could even damage your business. On the pricing side alone – the time it takes to consider, research and address each of these items is extensive. So whoever is working on this job is not placing much value on their time. Which is fine, it’s their time. But if they don’t value it, then why should the client? Potentially it will be either be handled by:
1) a junior freelancer designer portraying themselves as a web design company rather than a one man band, and therefore no resources or true experience but desperate to get the work in.
2) outsourced to India. They take a brief and shoot if off to a design company (if you can call it that) to Bangalore, Bombay or some other city where your designs are handled in a sweat shop environment with no concern given to design quality or brand maintence.
3) a freelance designer here on holiday, working to get enough money to continue to travel who really doesnt understand your business nor taken the time to understand the brief. A design is spewed out in 2 hours and if you want any changes then big penalty rates apply OR even worse you can contact then, phone is always engaged or goes to voice mail.
4) a design company desperate for the work and will quote extremely low in the first instance to secure your business and once you have paid the deposit then they start charging you like a wounded bull for any minor design amend or variation to the brief. Fights and frustration follow and they end up out of pocket, frayed nerves and a mistrust of design companies.
The list goes on and on and on ….so the moral here is… well i guess you can work that out for your self.
