Comment by noir_lord
7 years ago
One of the first web systems I ever put into production (still in use other than modernization I went 5 years without a bug report which still astounds me) after I jumped from desktop to web I charged £1500 for (it was about 20 hours actual work the rest was spent learning the right way to do things), did the job over 6 weeks.
Client let slip they'd been quoted £11,000 for it and 3mths.
Next job they asked me to do was £5,000 and I said 3mths (it took less than a month and I was working full time).
I learnt that lesson fast, don't charge what it's worth to you, charge what its worth to them.
Or as an ex-boss pithily put it "serious people charge serious money".
As a European I wonder how much this whole discussion translates to Europe (and its countries more specifically). American professionals seem to be dealing in ridiculously, obscenely high payments, seen from my personal vantage point. But that's also because money has an enormous role in life there. If you have money you are someone. You are someone to the extent of how much money you have. More generally I wonder how much my perception gets distorted by reading HN regularly.
Maybe it's because the most common stories of this type from the US are about corporate environments rather than small businesses. European corporations also spend obscene amounts of money on services and contractors, but few of us get anywhere near it, and large European companies tend to be more conservative in procurement and rely on big names or the "old boy's network" more.
I once did a job for a European client who ended up being a manager in some government department. He had a use-it or lose-it budget and needed an app prototype turned around in 48 hours to avoid losing the money.
After the initial prototype we did a few more rounds. That ended up being IIRC $30-$40k for what amounted to 5 days of work.
Client was super-happy. I guess the prototype was enough to convince his bosses to fund the project for real.
Marginal tax rates probably have something to do with it as well.
> Or as an ex-boss pithily put it "serious people charge serious money".
Leadership teams are buying validation as much as they are a product. That's why management consultants can charge so much damn money, they usually aren't telling the company anything new, they are there to back managers decisions.
When you look at it that way, you're not just getting paid to build something, you're getting paid to be the subject matter authority who walks in and tells leadership how smart and forward-thinking they are.