Thanks.
4 karma · joined January 2, 2015
I don't think that I have any competition yet. They've spent a few months on the problem and I think it is just dawning on them how difficult it is. I personally can think of one guy who might be willing and able to do this sort of project but I think he is too smart to get involved by the time they figure out their project is in trouble. If I don't take the project I will probably pass it on to him.
It's one of those problems that initially appears fairly simple. I'm in no way putting them down for not figuring this out, they simply haven't made as many mistakes in this niche as I have. Heck, it's more complicated than I first thought as well
Part of my motivation is learning something new so the risk to me isn't is big as might seem - I would get to apply my expertise in the embedded world instead of just desktop applications. The stuff I learn on this project will be applicable to future projects. But agree, speculative work is risky.
The flip side of risk is that the last thing I want to do is take this contract without absolutely knowing that I can solve their problem. The only way to do that is to actually solve the problem.
These guys really can't afford to miss their deadline. The last thing I want to do is be in the position of being blamed for them missing their deadline. Delivering a solution that saves their big project, saves them money and helps me put food on the table is win-win by my calculus.
I truly consider myself a partner with my clients. I sincerely want them to be successful. I also see nothing wrong with capturing some of the value I generate.
If you partnered up with someone, would you tell them "Nah, you keep the equity. Just tell your friends what a good job I did."? I know if I leave money on the table they are not going to turn around and pass the savings on to their customer or donate it to charity. Instead they will simply add my "gift" to their bottom line. (And there is nothing wrong with that.)
I think a lot of people are conditioned to be "workers" who sell hours of labor. A business sells value and I'm a businessman.
OK, I think I see what you are saying: $24K savings sounds good - but not so great if my license fee eats most of the savings on them.
Thanks! P.S. What does "BoB" stand for? My google fu is weak...
I think their resistance to the idea or paying someone $250hr not to paying for a solution costing $25K.
I was thinking of licensing the solution as a library. I.e. "I can license you a library that does exactly what you need." They wouldn't know if I spent 10 or 1000 hours creating it.
They won't be able to ship their product without this problem being solved and their deadline is only a couple of months away.
With the above in mind, would you change your approach?
Thanks again for taking the time to help me out.
1. I could charge them more by the hour. My champion at the company thinks they would balk if I told them $250/hr. - even though I would be saving them that much in the first year.
2. Since I intend to have the product finished by the time I negotiate, I could give them a fixed price with very low risk to me – say $25K-35K.
3. I could demo a working version when I talk to them. Having something that demonstrably works from Day One should be worth a premium over “I think I can get this done in time.” right? The risk is that part of my Secret Sauce would be revealed by the demo.
4. What is a good way to point out how much I’d be saving them? I imagine I can use that to set/justify my price somehow but I’m a little fuzzy on the approach.
5. Licensing the software to them (including source) on a yearly basis – say $15k a year. I would have to trust them as this is embedded software and they would have the source. This is the Big Question. I've never done something like this before. I probably won’t be licensing this to anyone else. Can I charge more for an “exclusive” license?
6. The counter person at a junk yard once told me “How much have you got?” when I asked the price of a part that I needed for my car. Is there a less obvious way of asking this of a client? :-)
Thanks in advance.