I had the opportunity recently to meet with a prospective client who was keen to replace an ancient DOS-based application central to the running of his business. I suspected from the start that money would be an issue but pressed on regardless, listening closely to his ideas about the features he wanted and offering some suggestions of my own along the way.
Reflecting on the meeting later on, I figured that if he was to be enticed at all, I needed to come up with a basic prototype which would impress him enough that he'd give the go-ahead to proceed with development. It was a calculated risk, but one I thought was worth taking.
Some twenty-plus development hours later I had the basic shell of the application ready for demonstration and arranged to visit again the following week. To cut a long story short, I showed him what I'd achieved and presented him with a project proposal and quotation. He was certainly excited about what I'd accomplished but, as I'd feared, baulked at the estimate - perhaps the plethora of cheap shareware products on the 'net had shaped his expectations of price!
The lesson I learned, which seems pretty obvious in hindsight, is that once I have a gut feel for how much a client might be up for, it's best I let them know my thoughts immediately, even if I can give them a ball-park figure only. Had I done so in this instance, his reaction would surely have confirmed my suspicions and I wouldn't have invested time and effort in developing the prototype; at most, I would've sacrificed a couple of hours of my time. Live and learn.
Fortunately in this case, I'm confident the application can be developed further in a generic enough fashion that I can offer it for sale from my web site and recoup my costs - eventually. One more idea to be added to the ever-expanding "to do" list!
Cheers
Pete
Reflecting on the meeting later on, I figured that if he was to be enticed at all, I needed to come up with a basic prototype which would impress him enough that he'd give the go-ahead to proceed with development. It was a calculated risk, but one I thought was worth taking.
Some twenty-plus development hours later I had the basic shell of the application ready for demonstration and arranged to visit again the following week. To cut a long story short, I showed him what I'd achieved and presented him with a project proposal and quotation. He was certainly excited about what I'd accomplished but, as I'd feared, baulked at the estimate - perhaps the plethora of cheap shareware products on the 'net had shaped his expectations of price!
The lesson I learned, which seems pretty obvious in hindsight, is that once I have a gut feel for how much a client might be up for, it's best I let them know my thoughts immediately, even if I can give them a ball-park figure only. Had I done so in this instance, his reaction would surely have confirmed my suspicions and I wouldn't have invested time and effort in developing the prototype; at most, I would've sacrificed a couple of hours of my time. Live and learn.
Fortunately in this case, I'm confident the application can be developed further in a generic enough fashion that I can offer it for sale from my web site and recoup my costs - eventually. One more idea to be added to the ever-expanding "to do" list!
Cheers
Pete
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