Cheap

I’m weird, I know this, many of you that know me – know this too. I do many weird things and have an overriding hate of cheap crap and tacky stuff. I hate cheap unpalatable food – I’d rather not eat than eat rubbish (…and haven’t had a McDonalds or Burger King meal for over 20 years). If someone tries to sell me something and uses the phrase ‘you can save ‘x’ amount’ or ‘this is a bargain’ – I immediately switch off and don’t want it.

I hate sales, I hate end of season bargains and I’ve never bought anything that was ‘last year’s model’…

I therefore struggle with working with the type of person that looks for a bargain or a cheap offer – I know I’m going to dislike them before we’ve even started a working relationship. I have a way of detecting ‘assholes’ – if I arrive at a meeting in my car and the client says ‘I must be paying you too much’ or ‘I’ve paid for that car’ …what I should do instead of smiling politely and laughing is tell them to go f**k themselves and just get back in my car. It’s the same with people that go through the bill in a restaurant arguing that they only had ‘one poppadum’ or that they ‘didn’t have a starter’ …cheapskates …should all be shot…

So why is it that people always want to have the cheapest price? What do they think they are gaining? I’ve got to be honest with the majority of my clients using me on a repeat basis – I’m not going to over-charge them, and I certainly won’t be ‘ripping’ anybody off – yet they just won’t believe me – they have to get three or more prices before they can give me an instruction.

Is this really cost effective?

When I get work done on my house I never ask for three prices – ever.

I get a recommendation from someone I know then I ask for the builder/plumber/electrician to give me a price for the works and providing the price is ‘reasonable’ then he gets the job. But…I hear you ask …how do you know what’s ‘reasonable’…

Well…you look at the day rate for what he is doing, you look at the materials costs, the you look at what profit he is making and decide whether you would be happy to get paid what he gets paid…least ways that’s what I do. Most of the time you will get a little variation in what people charge as a day rate but most people are ‘reasonable’.

What magical formulae do clients think that people are going to produce to make them do a job cheaper then the next contractor? Either the materials that they provider are shoddy and sub-standard or the labour rate is based on fewer days? There is no other way to save money on a job. Yes you can work harder, more efficiently, maybe some companies own machinery, others rent or hire it in – but there isn’t a huge difference. Maybe company one is nearer to you therefore they might save a few quid on travelling costs…but in the scheme of things its pennies.

Wouldn’t you prefer to work with a company that you know and trust rather than going with a cheaper alternative that you know nothing about? ….

So let’s just cut all this nonsense, just come to Japanese Knotweed Solutions, you know we are the best…and stop being a cheapskate…

 

Mike C