It’s Not Your Service, It’s Your Expertise.

Have you ever heard one of those lines that skews your thought behind something? Regardless of what that something actually is, you suddenly have an epiphany about it. The line that got me recently was:

“No one hires a mechanic because he turns bolts, People hire the mechanic because he knows which bolts to turn.”

I was reading an article on charging clients a fair amount, and it had a comic with a conversation between a client and a designer. Something along the lines of:

Client: “Can you make me a logo?”
Designer: “Yes. I will be right back.”

——— ten minutes later————

Designer: “Here you go.”
Client: ”I love it, How much?”
Designer: “$500.”
Client: “500? really? it only took you ten minutes. I am not paying you that much for ten minutes of work.”
Designer: “ You aren’t paying $500 me for ten minutes of work. You are paying me $500 for being able to create it in ten minutes.”

For me what that translated to was not the fact that the “client” isn’t paying for the service, they are paying for your expertise in preforming that service. That’s right, your expertise.

I know a lot of people who under cut themselves drastically because the client because their new clients can’t afford it. Within reason that makes sense. However, you have to find that middle ground, where you aren’t losing money.
Conversely, a clients has to be willing to spend a little money, as an investment in order to make a little money.