While watching the last in the series of Rip-off Ireland a thought occured to me about the industry that I know best, Information Technology. I’ve paid plumbers and electricians around 60 euro/hour to fix problems during normal working hours. Assuming a dilligent independent electrician working at these rates for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 42 weeks a year (holidays are vital to recharge the batteries) we get yearly earnings of over 100,000 euro. However, I never checked to see that the electrician who came around wasn’t an apprentice charging a a steep rate while remaining on a relatively modest salary. I just wanted my wires uncrossed 🙂. I must admit though, I did feel slightly ripped-off. As a software developer and web designer I meet the same customers who pay over 80 euro an hour to the plumber to come in and fix a leak late at night. However, the big difference is that they think they have some appreciation for what the plumber or electrician does whereas IT is a mystery. Even in this rip-off republic IT is often available for FREE!!! If that sounds too good to be true it’s because it is.
While major IT services companies charge high rates to businesses for sometimes trivial activities at the lower end of the market, we’re killing ourselves.
Gaisan has a wide mixture of customers from large academic institutes and medium sized enterprises to the mom & pop business who wants a website, perhaps to sell something online. We see all walks of life and it’s a varied and interesting job. We generally don’t undertake any project less than 2,000 euro as it’s not profitable. Unfortunately due to consumer ignorance and the myopia of the young IT developer many consumers assume IT should be very cheap. Developing a high-quality and stylish website is a skill that’s difficult to find but web development in general is 10’a’penny. Many businesses have little idea what they should be looking for in a design or the mysterious process of attracting visitors to their site. Ultimately they’re often not sure why they need a website in the first place and make vague references to “the computer-age” and being seen as an “technology aware”. Equally there are thousands of young web developers and software engineers who are willing to devote every waking hour of their lives to hacking up pieces of code, websites etc. for peanuts. The end result is that many websites are created as favours or part-time nixers and the businesses that own them are deluded into thinking that IT is a cheap commodity. Unfortunately those young designers and developers grow up, try to get mortgages and realise that “holy shit” house prices have skyrocketed, partically due to all those plumbers, electricians and builders that are generally unionised and achieve a decent rate of pay for their effort. So the slightly older software developers look to get management jobs which are higher paying but often less satisfying or specialise in some obscure database technology where they can get even more money than tradespeople who never put in 4-6 years of college. This is not in anyway a rant against any of the trades or professions. It’s a lament for an industry that refuses to grow up and the naievety of some of those in it. IT web designers, developers and contract programmers need to standardise their rates and have industrially-accepted accreditation to stop us from lowering our prices to the point that we can no longer make a decent living. Financially I’m doing well but I know many who aren’t. The promise of those dotcom millions never happened and they’re disillusioned with their lot. If you’re a young web designer reading this then I’d ask you to consider the following story…
A local business owner drives up in their shiny 100,000 BMW jeep, walks into your office and says “I want a basic website. I want to be able to maintain it myself though. I’d rather not pay for updating the site.”
So you think… hhhmmm I’ll use a CMS and you ask them if they have a logo or a design in mind and they reply…
“No, I thought you could do all that. It’s just a simple site”
Now you’re thinking that it’s potentially a lot of work but you can do that. You’ve got a graphic designer on the staff and you do this kind of work all the time. So you tell them you can do all that if required and ask them if there’s anything else…
The potential customer then mentions a few features that you interpret as flash animation, a spam-proof guestbook and a blog. They may also want some kind of groupware in their “simple” website. Round about now you’re looking at the shiny beemer and thinking that, at least, they have money. It’s time to mention prices so you tell them you can do all that but it’s going to take some time, a few iterations to get it right and it’s going to cost a few thousand quid to get everything done right.
Then their face drops and they smile as if you’ve just uttered something ridiculous and say
“Really, that much? I thought it would cost a lot less. It’s only a basic site. You must have misunderstood.”
2 options kids!
- Reduce your quote and try to knock some features off. From several years of experience DO NOT DO THIS! They want a complex site and won’t be happy til they get it
- You tell them that it’s a reasonable price and explain the work involved
You tell the potential-customer-who-never-was that it’s a fair price and explain the work involved. Around 80% of the time they’ll reply with something like
“It’s OK anyway. My cousin’s cousin’s niece does websites so I’ll ask her instead.”
Thank you for wasting my time. Everyone I know in IT experiences this on a daily basis. Sure, there are some variations. Sometimes they drive up in a Mercedes. So who’s at fault here? In my opinion it’s the relation/friend who capitulates and does the site as a favour as someday they’re going to grow tired of working 12 hours a day and wonder why IT rates lag behind other professions. Most of those other professions don’t have the hassle of reskilling every 6 months. Or maybe they should just marry a plumber!