I was out having a drink with a new friend I made. We discuss about working life so I brought up the normal discussion of unfair pricing clients request most of the time. He gave me a reply which was really shocking and I’d have never guessed it actually.
His comment or the cause of this is by the students in college or university. The same students studying and having too much free time before any of their exams. Normally I’d hear people agreeing with me but having said it’s the students, it got me thinking from the other perspective.
I’m not blaming and pointing fingers screaming it’s that particular parties fault. I really do wonder half the time why are our freelance prices so sh*tty. It’s becoming to be even not worth peanuts here.
I do see my friend’s view because students have raging hormones, the need to party and the greed for cash when you’re still that age. You want so many things but you don’t have enough and you can’t demand more allowance because it’s being invested into your college fees.
The neutral ground of all this I suppose is the greed. The hunger that we’ve learnt from our earlier fathers culture that we should get our bang for our buck. Though we might’ve taken it to a more extreme level.
The qualities or practice of paying what you get is being corrupted. Instead of paying RM2000 to hire professional website people and getting quality service, we’re faced by the challenge of having to offer lower because of the competitor who’s offering less quality at a cheaper price.
The hunger of greedy clients adds more to the corrupt working life and it’s really taking a tol on a lot of us. Many are beginning to ignore this and just go with it. Too afraid of not being able to earn anything because we learn from the oldest who might not be sometimes the wisest.
It’s if you don’t do what I say or follow what I do, I’m going to disown you.
But really, who’s fault do you think it is that’s affecting our current web market?
If your client does not see that the quality of a full time worker’s website is worth the premium, then there is no reason for him to commensurate you for it.
Perhaps you can dumb down your services, thus providing you with more time to offer services to more clients.
Do not force people to buy diamonds when all they want is bread.
This is Economics 101.
i once left a comment on a blog as the blogger wrote that an organisation can get a website built with all the ‘bells and whistles’ (whatever that means) for less than RM1000. i don’t really remember what i wrote, but he replied that sure it could be that cheap because he’s talking about freelancers. i just left it at that because i wasn’t really interested to pursue the issue with the person.
anyway, if you’re serious about what you’re doing or planning to do, figure out your rate and stick with it. why would you want to work with someone who don’t respect what you do anyway? there are good clients out there, acquire the skills to educate them on good webdesign. i say it’s ‘our’ fault if we don’t value our own work and kill the market by undercutting rates.
Amen to the comment above.
I am a firm believer of ‘what you pay is what you get’. Various level of professionalism demands different rate, as simple as that.
Danny, the sooner you can get out of the thought that you’re actually competing with those college kid freelancers, the better i think it will serve your business model. There’s a different league for all of us ^_^.
I agree with the above. If theres anything I lernt in college and then found true in real life, is that the price war is a battle nobody can win and in the end everybody will come out the loser.
For my part, I figure I will insist on my fee, and in return I’ll deliver work above the minumum requirement.
I’d like to say, “You’ll get what you pay for”, unfortunately, we’ve a list of past portfolios to maintain, and we need them to be in top condition; therefore we can’t just cook up something quick and silly for the selfish client, can we?
Professionalisme bounds us in terms of work. Hence, we have to insist on fee that is fair to us too.
Aye, the web development industry in Asia is like being in shark-infested water bleeding your guts out. Which is the main reason why I still prefer to be employed by a company who appreciate the work that I do.
Back in Australia, my work commanded hourly rates (MYR 100 per hour, 7 billable hours a day) for programming and design work. Here, clients insists on a “packaged-deal” for a project scope they aren’t even sure about, and “just make a website for me with Flash intro lah” doesn’t quite work for me.
Frankly, I’ve decided to go back down-under in another year. The country just isn’t ready for a real K-economy and I don’t see it happening anytime soon.
I think this is the first time in my whole blogging journey of website design and development that I’ve seen this many constructive comments. :) Kudos to all.
Current ethics and practices of website design and development isn’t here yet as mentioned. Malaysia is still young in this field but there have been signs of progression from our generation and the ones behind us.
But I guess signs of this type of corrupt business world will always remain. Like Yin & Yang, there’ll always have to be a balance.
I think this is the first time in my whole blogging journey of website design and development that I’ve seen this many constructive comments. :) Kudos to all.
oops but there you go taking the steam out of the whole thing :-P
Okie, my bad.
Well, I’m glad to announce though that there’s been someone paying me of what a website designer should be getting today. The details I’ll leave you people guessing. :)
Cheers.
congrats! keep it up :-)