That guy who wanted a complete website overhaul for $150 and a "credit" in the footer

I still think about this one guy I met at a coffee shop downtown about 2 years ago. He approached me while I was eating lunch, said he saw my work on a local business site, and asked if I could "clean up" his online store. Turns out he had 47 product pages, custom checkout stuff, and a whole inventory system that was breaking every other day. I told him my rate was $50 an hour and this looked like a solid week of work. He laughed and said he could find a kid in India to do it for $150, but he wanted to support local. Then he offered me $150 flat, and said I could put a "built by" credit in the footer as part of the payment. I asked if he paid his dentist in exposure. He didn't think it was funny. Has anyone else had someone try to barter with "credit" like it's a real currency?

2 comments

2 Comments

kai_ramirez383d ago

Ha, the "exposure" payment plan strikes again! I totally get why you're annoyed, but honestly I'm going to play devil's advocate here. A lot of small business owners really don't get how much work goes into custom stuff like inventory systems, they just see a website as something you throw together in an afternoon. Plus if he's never hired a web developer before, $150 probably sounds like a decent amount of money to him, especially compared to those overseas rates he mentioned. Doesn't make it right, but it explains why he didn't see the problem with his offer. Still, comparing it to paying a dentist in exposure is perfect, that line always makes people stop and think.

barbaradavis3d ago

Oh, have you ever been offered payment in "exposure" too? It's like they think we can take that to the grocery store... I had a guy once offer me a "great deal" of $200 and a free t-shirt to build an entire e-commerce site for his candle business. He kept saying it would be "good for my portfolio" and how it could lead to "bigger clients." I told him I'd rather take the exposure to actually paying clients... The dentist comparison really hits home because people would never ask their doctor to work for free and hope for referrals later.