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First, I want to start by thanking you for taking your time to provide so much information. There's something for everyone to learn in this topic, no matter what business they run.
Please do not take what I am about to say the wrong way. It is only my own personal opinion and my opinions are rarely "politically correct" but they are not meant to insult anyone.
I run a web / app development and design company in the U.S. My goal is not only to offer value to my customers but also to give them a great deal. The amount you charge for a very simple website ($12k in your example above) is how much I charge for a complex Android + iOS app. How do you justify charging $4800 for some basic "programming" in CSS and HTML (which are not programming languages actually and can be learned in a couple of weeks just like you said)? How can you charge $1200 for graphic elements and a logo? I am very curious to see one of these websites you have done.
I think the approach of charging based on the value you bring to a company is wrong and leads to inflation. What if every single business charged by that model? Can you imagine what would happen to prices?
Imagine going to the dental hygienist to get your teeth whitened before an interview for a modeling job. The teeth whitening helps you land that job and you end up making $100k a year. Let's just assume that if you had yellow teeth, you would not have gotten the modeling job. Would you be willing to pay $20k (20% of the yearly salary of your new job) to get your teeth whitened?
Imagine you have problems with your prostate so you start eating pumpkin seeds (good for your prostate) which helps you cure your problem within a couple of months. Would you be willing to then pay thousands of dollars for those pumpkin seeds that potentially saved your life even though you can buy them from other places for $5 a pound or find cheaper alternatives that result in the same outcome?
Imagine you need to fly to China and sign a $100k contract. Would you be willing to pay $20 000 for the plane ticket to your destination if it meant getting to contract?
The same applies to people who think that minimum wage should be increased. What do you think will happen to prices overall if a McDonalds employee starts making $15 an hour? Everything else will become more expensive as well, so the minimum wage increase is mostly an illusion.
Came from the dentist the other day and was charged $1400 for two hours of work. When that dentist had to pay $20k for his new website, he's going to charge $700 an hour to compensate for that. When he knows that a Burger King worker who never finished high school makes $15 an hour, he'll bump his prices accordingly. This is happening everywhere around us, but seems like few are aware of it.
Just because your website brings 10 new clients for that particular business, does not mean you need to charge him extra for that. Many other web design companies create the same websites like you do and bring the same amount of clients + "value" to your customer, but charge a fraction of the cost. You could say that they are stupid or you could say that they are fair. Depends on how you view it.
I understand that most of us on this forum consider ourselves smarter than the "stupid and naive slowlaners", but we should never go down to the level of taking advantage of people and we should think thoroughly about this since sometimes we are not aware of what we're doing. Better to be an honest slowlaner than a crooked fastlaner. One thing I notice repeatedly on this forum is that many members do not grasp the concept that a world without slowlaners would be hell on Earth. We should wake up every single morning and thank God (or whatever you believe in) for slowlaners because without them, the fastlane model would not work. Without people willing to work their whole lives and do repeated tasks for very little money, without people who don't dream of retiring at 30 and then just enjoying life, without people who devote their whole lives to improving the lives of others and not expecting monetary rewards, without all the scientists, authors, mathematicians, inventors, engineers who make incredible discoveries and don't even patent their work or ask for any sort of recognition, this world would not function. These are the true heroes.
These are the people who's value goes unnoticed. Not some "smartass" who builds a new social media app and becomes a millionaire by 20. Not someone who takes advantage of people's ignorance. Not some salesman who bothers hundreds of people each day to sell them something they don't want and lands a couple of clients that don't know any better (not referring to you, but I'm sure you're aware that most salesman do this - I could go on a tangent about how impolite, rude, obnoxious and annoying it is to disturb hundreds of people to sell your service to them, but I'm not going to).
I am not here to argue with anyone, but am simply presenting a different perspective. Charging $12k for such a basic website means taking advantage in my book, no matter what "value" you bring to the client. Would be fun to compare our work in private @Fox and see if the $10k difference in price truly reflects on the value each of us brings to our customers. Sure, one could argue that I am undercharging my clients, but I would not be able to sleep at night if I charged them that amount for a simple WordPress website and some content, which any high school student can learn to do after a few months of practice.
This is why I think a SAAS business model is the best for a web based fastlane business. This way, you are not charging your clients much, but it's the volume that makes you money. I'd recommend the web development and design business as a means to learn new things, put money aside and focus on a fastlane business on the side. The development / design business is a job. The only way you can make it not be a job is to charge ridiculous amounts of money and make others do the work for you for very little money.
Let us not take advantage of people's ignorance. There is a right price for everything and an inflated price. Both add the same amount of value, but are both fair? That's for each of us to decide.
If you have something rude to say to me, I'd appreciate it if you could do it through a private message. I do not wish to turn this great topic into a mess.
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