If the client wants cheap, the client will find cheap. If the client wants a high end, quality service…well, they’ll get it.

The provider has no effect on the market. They can only change themselves to suit their chosen market.

(Unless that provider happens to be a totalitarian dictatorship. And even then, they have to pay their soldiers well, and treat their generals like kings. Even Hitler had to ass-kiss.)

[...] the subject of design, this is a fantastic article about attitudes toward “cheap buyers” of graphic/web design and copy. Here’s the [...]

[...] generally don’t care that your experience and time are worth paying for. Most only care who can do the job cheapest. That doesn’t mean the buyer is stupid, it doesn’t mean they’re a terrible person. [...]

As for career changes, had I wanted to make some serious money, I would’ve been a lawyer or an accountant. But I’m a writer, where my talents and skills lie. It isn’t about money at all – it’s about understanding that those who bitch about being unable to earn a living from purist art mindsets really should change their attitudes, not their jobs

[...] • Are you a snotty artist? [...]

Shakespeare, Dickens, Twain, and other revered literary figures worked at writing as a trade, and in the process, created art. Many aspiring literary writers support themselves by doing some form of commercial writing, editing, or teaching of the craft. Why not? There are no real boundaries in writing, and using your skills to make a great living is not selling out. With luck and good management, it’s just another step on the way to becoming who you want to be. (And if you want to be an arTEESTe, don’t let me stop you. Just don’t expect me to join you in disrespecting others.)

Great post. Thanks!
Janice Campbell from NAIWE´s last blog ..Bleeder: A miracle? Or bloody murder? by John Desjarlais- A Review

98% of my clientele are Americans. They think, for the most part, that I do a brilliant job. I also have no issue understanding their needs and providing results, despite those categorical differences I mentioned above.

So when you suggest I’m providing counterproductive advice to people, I’m not sure where and how.

Also, I know many providers in Europe, Great Britain, Serbia South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and other countries around the world beyond the United States. These people all have varying rates based on their personal cost of living and region’s market rates, and they all do brilliant work.

I will also add that some of the worst work I’ve seen has come from locations that may indeed surprise you.

But, you’ll get great work all over the world, and you’ll get shoddy work all over the world. While I’d like to think that “Made in Canada” is a stamp of quality beyond excellence itself, I’m more realistic than that, and I also know that “Made in the USA” isn’t any better or worse.

We are all equals, in my mind.

You mention: “One point is that the client has the problem of picking the “right” one – perhaps several times in a row in order to find one provider that produces an acceptable result. That repetition of expenses can be much more costly than finding one good local or regional person who provides real value.”

This has very little to do with where a person works from. Picking the “right” one simply means knowing what you want, having criteria for the type of person you want to work with, and carrying out proper interviews to find that person. My experience is that this process doesn’t go faster if that person is in the United States – and very often, it takes much longer.

You mention: “Another issue is cultural differences, from scoping the project to delivering the actual work. How do you know that the cheap non local person really understands what you need and want?”

To which I ask, how do you know that the really expensive very local person really understands what you need and want? I have people who work an hour away from me that have a harder time understanding than someone halfway across the world.

The language barrier? Perhaps, but I’ve met some people who have English as a second language who can speak it and write it better than people who have it as a first language. (I won’t use myself as an example here, because I did have a fluently bilingual upbringing…)

I am glad that we agree on the arTEESTe attitude – that too, knows no boundaries.

As for cockiness… Yep, it’s got it’s place, eh?

Cheers.

As a, so called, “offshore programmer” myself I suspect the issues you’ve had relate more to having hired ‘cheap’ labor than outsourcing to international providers. It IS, for the most part, a “global market”. In fact, 80% of my clients are not fellow Australians and I often outsource some of my own needs to international freelancers.

I’ve often found, the attitude of those in our employ has a great deal to do with our own attitude toward them. If you feel and act superior, you’ll have ’small’ minds responding to your requests. If you’re warm, inviting, and can relate one-on-one to others, bright, talented, creative minds will flock to you.

The same can be said for our clients. The way WE relate to others, and to ourselves, plays a significant part on the kind of clients we’ll attract. Another is that there are many in creative industries who just don’t KNOW that they could be charging more.

As an “offshore” provider, my cost of living differs, my government has a supportive health system and fair superannuation and taxation. I can afford to charge less and give more than many providers. I often adjust my own rate based on the country of origin of my client. But I’ve only done that as I’ve become confident in myself and my business skill to know I CAN do it.

Many providers don’t realize that the income they earn is ‘perceived’ rather than actual value. One person, or culture, is willing to pay one rate and another would consider that rate expensive/cheap. The value is in the eye of the client, not the provider.
Rebecca Laffar-Smith´s last blog ..Are You Writing A Book Next Month?

In an ideal world, clients would appreciate real value, and freelancers would be ranked such that the bozos would stand alone while the quality players would attract all of the business.

But, things aren’t linear at all in business.

I contend that prospects will often unconsciously correlate over-the-top confidence with excellence, and humility with stupidity and incompetence and being very ordinary and unexceptional.

I personally believe two things: (1) the business world (perhaps just in the US) tends to thrive on an appearance of arrogance or at least “specialness” and “uniqueness”. (2) new clients won’t really appreciate “good value” anyway.

Let’s look at point 2.

In terms of the second point, I have spent quite a few years working as a contract software developer.

My very *least* appreciative clients over the years have been ones where I was assiduous about providing maximum value per billed hour, and where my bill rate was purposefully modest in order to fit into their supposed “budget”.

I’d say that most of my lower-billed clients have insulted me or my work for them somehow or lumped me into a “heads down moron” category, even though the activity I was on essentially stopped dead after I left them.

I have been treated *much* better when I have done two things: stuck to a high-average bill rate; and impressed upon the client that I was too special in some way important to their immediate needs to be lumped with a low paid programmer harvested from some temp agency pool.

I’m saying that you don’t want to be diffident on purpose, but also, acting too eager or too grateful (at least in the business circles I’ve run in) gets you kicked in the teeth and treated like Rodney Dangerfield.

Also, I have some experience with hiring offshore programmers. In general they are just looking for an opportunity to bill lots of cheap hours on non complex tasks. I’ve hired such folks myself a few times and it’s been mostly a waste of time and a hassle. In each instance I felt that if only I could have found someone in the same country as me (at prevailing US rates) I would have gotten better value per dollar.

I’d expect freelance creatives to be just as mixed in results. The bleating “but it’s a world wide marketplace!!” misses several points. One point is that the client has the problem of picking the “right” one – perhaps several times in a row in order to find one provider that produces an acceptable result. That repetition of expenses can be much more costly than finding one good local or regional person who provides real value.

Another issue is cultural differences, from scoping the project to delivering the actual work. How do you know that the cheap non local person really understands what you need and want? The bid may be low because the provider is naïve, has poor communication skills or is desperate for work and is underbidding. I have run into all of these variations. This is a lot easier to determine when the provider comes from the same business culture.

In general I don’t treat someone who charges a fraction of the going rate in *anything* that seriously. If they were that good, they could be doing better and charging more. Even if they’re overseas. (By fraction I mean the 10:1 or 30:1 ratio of first world to third world rates that all of us self employed people are supposed to cower under in fear.)

So, James … I think you’re offering counterproductive advice to people in some ways.

I completely agree that the “arteest” schtick is overplayed. I don’t agree that a variant of it has absolutely no place. I think that a freelancer provider has to defend themselves, their value proposition, and yes, their “specialness”, using whatever tools are at their disposal – including interpersonal skills, which are a form of marketing.

Arrogance, cockiness, and a degree of positioning oneself as “uber” definitely have their place. But, of course, it has to be calibrated to the audience. Don’t come off like a jerk. Do hold your head high.