Charging services

almost a week aku xonline... so lama gak aku fikir nk tulis apa kt sini, sbb dh lupe cmna nk tulis blog :P

last week, aku, syam n adli (from ecraft) meet one of our most earliest customer (eCraft's customer), Miss YN from CYG company. agak lama gak xcontact dia n xdengar berita, but suddenly dia kol aku last week, another small bisnes. tp bkn tu yg aku nk ceritakan...

aku nk share antara pengalaman awal aku dpt dgn company ni. Masa kitaorang first jmpa dulu, almost 2years ago xsilap, we were at their office. Diaorang nk update website diaorang. only few pages perlu diupdate, tp sbb sikit tu la yg buat kami xreti nk charge harga.

kami fikir punya fikir, kami pun nk charge lbh kurang 200 utk update page tu (RM50 utk setiap page update, tp sbb kbanyakan page2 tu update skit-skit bhgian jer, so kitaorang compile je sume. jd le rm200) and rm200 utk flash. Total RM400. nilai tu kira byk la jugak bg kami masa tu, sbb kami xde bground client lagi and kami pun still student.

Few mistakes here:

1. kitaorang compile page2 yg banyak tu, smpai jadik cm 4 page jer. cara ni xbaik utk bisnes. mmg la negotiation tu bagus, tp bila korang baik dan pemurah yg teramat, diaorang akan amik kesempatan ke atas kita
2. harga kami target rm400. bila kita propose harga tu, dia cut price and cut and cut and cut again... smpai jadik rm150 jer. wat the heck??? first, kitaorang mmg xde pengalaman nego harga. kedua, company cina mmg terror bab2 nk potong2 harga ni... diaorang mmg cukup terror nk putar smpai kita tergamam n xleh buat pe. suggestion: next time klu korang target rm400, letak harga lebih cam rm600-800 ke...
3. harga yg kami letak tu harga student... mmg banyak jmlahnya kalau ko jadi student. tp klu ko dlm industri, ko mmg bod*h klu still letak harga tu. korang kena make sure harga at least on industry based price. and kalau rasa kualiti kerja korang bagus, letak lagi tinggi!

dlm keadaan tertekan dgn price yg diorang letak dan permainan logika mereka, ttiba alhamdulillah... kami dpt idea cmna nk memutarkan balik keadaan. finally, kami dpt charge company tu ngan nilai RM550.

From dat very day, we learn something about pricing. Sbb tu xhairan klu korang gi kedai chinese kt luar sana, mereka masih boleh turunkan harga jauh dari harga standard sbb wpun dh dimurahkan, still dlm range target keuntungan mereka.

satu lagi perkara psl pricing & charging ialah: bila customer tanya berapa cost, patutkah kita bgtau trus dengan penuh yakin, atau kita perlu berdolak dalih dulu, balik fikir masak2, calculate cost, kmudian br bgtau mereka. which one korang rasa better? (dlm situasi xde cara calculation charging yg sbnr)

*again, apa yg aku cite ni based on pengalaman aku dlm bisnes IT. aku xpasti kalau ilmu2 ni betul or boleh digunakan utk bisnes yg lain. Just a knowledge sharing :)