Following My Own Advice

Following on from the post below, I’m about to follow my own advice!
I’ve given a client a web site proposal for $21,000. It’s a client we’ve worked with previously and they accepted out quote and asked us to start work right away.
A couple of days later the client asked me to stop the work we’d done and come in for a meeting. Turns out they are in this new business with a partner and the partner had gotten a quote for the job as well.
$19,700 Less!
The quote their partner got was $1,300!
So I went in and explained the value of our proposal and they were happy with that. They wanted some reassurance the site would work how I said it would if we implemented the strategies suggested.
Because I had worked with one half of this business before I said sure – pay me $6,000 upfront and $15,000 in 10 weeks if the web site is achieving the goals we set.
They came back with a counter-offer.
* $3,000 now
* $3,000 on completion
* $1,250 a month for 12 months
The Red Flags Are Up
The client wants me to take the entire risk for the business succeeding. I don’t think so friend.
I reduced their risk substantially with my initial $6,000 now/balance if the site works offer, but now I get the sense they’re just trying to screw me.
* In the meeting they were trying to screw me down on every little cost.
* They didn’t want us to take product shots, they just wanted to steal the graphics from a competitor’s web site.
* And now they want me to act as a Finance Company (interest free) for their web business
They have no ‘hurt’ money in the project. Which means they don’t care if it succeeds or fails. That is, if it fails they still get to eat. They don’t desperately, desperately need it to succeed.
Nope. Not for me.
Cheers
Brendon