Anyone who has taken the inexpensive route for something important, knows from experience, you get what you pay for. It's true with anything: from haircuts to plastic surgery to home building to website design.
Not that we suggest anyone go the cheap route for plastic surgery, but believe it or not, Google shows that over 10,000 people do searches for "free plastic surgery" every year. (880 searches a month x 12 months = 10,5560 searches a year.)
What's surprising about these search results is:
- there are far less people searching for "free haircuts" than there are people searching for free housing, plastic surgery or web design, and
- the competition is Low for "free haircuts" while it is High for searches for "free housing, free plastic surgery or free web design"
Why these search results are funny.
- It means there's far MORE gullible people who think they can get free housing, free plastic surgery or free web design than free haircuts,
- far LESS people who think free haircuts are a good idea (since there are far less monthly searches for that phrase), and
- because the competition is "High" it means there's thousands of websites using the phrases "free housing" "free plastic surgery"and "free web design," which means there's A LOT of companies trying to trick those gullible people into getting to those websites (which is what the term "click bait" is all about).
What's the significance of this?
As we're sure any Columbus web design firm has had, there's always prospects asking for breaks in the price for websites. Though a prospect likes the high-end custom web design we do, they think they should get a break, and have us give away lots of time in the process.
When someone asks us for a break in the price, we often wonder how many of their customers ask them for breaks in their prices?
We doubt many plastic surgeons get comments from potential patients that they think "the anesthesia cost seems a tad too high." Or if a home builder gets comments like "Can't you do the foundation for half the price?"
We certainly understand why people ask.
First, there's the theory that "It never hurts to ask." And in many scenarios, that might be the case. (We've all done it when buying something on Craig's List!)
They also might think, hey, it's only time. But for those of us who "sell our time" (like surgeons and hair stylists) that means working for free.
They problem is, they don't want to cut corners on the project. They want the full blown service of a high-end custom website, but still don't want to cover those costs.
Fortunately, we do have enough prospects-turned-clients who are willing to pay the actual cost it takes to design and build a truly custom one-of-a-kind website.
The two other problems with getting something for free (or less).
- the people doing the free work are far less likely to go above and beyond, or do those little extras that are often thrown in, and
- your website, as a money-losing project, can easily get pushed back to make way for the folks who are willing to pay the full cost of the service they're getting.
Of course, there's more than these two problems. Here's a blog that cites "36 Reasons Why Having a Free Website is a Bad Idea." And we agree with many of them.
Any Columbus web design firm that's willing to take on a project for less, should make managing expectations a priority. As long as the client knows what they're giving up in exchange for a lower price, this scenario might turn out well.
Because if a prospect asking for a price break isn't giving something up, and you willingly lower your price for the asking, it makes them wonder how you came up with that price in the first place! It makes your pricing seem random if your willing to simply lower it when someone asks. This is assuming, of course, your pricing is based on past projects so you know how much time it takes to do a kick-ass website.
It also makes the prospect wonder, in our humble opinion, "Well, if they're wiling to lower the price so quickly, maybe they were overcharging before!"
The times when a web design firm might lower their prices:
- when they're very slow and desperate for work,
- when a project could be so much fun it's worth the free time,
- when the project is high profile and they know it will bring them some notoriety, or
- if it's a segment of an industry they really want to get involved with but have no experience in.
We've all been in those scenarios and have taken on work when there's a mutually-beneficial outcome.
Reasons to take on work for free
20 years ago, we remember hearing a well-known web design firm talk about their work. Something they said stuck with us to this day:
"If a project brings us two of these three things: fame, fun or fortune, we take it on." We loved that line of thinking and have repeated it many times. However, there were also time, we were willing to accept ONE of those three things to take on a project. Sometimes, requiring TWO of the three "f-words" (fun, fame or fortune) might be too much to ask!
Fortunately, most of our projects bring at least one of those f-words to the table!