Spent most of my active time this weekend working on a website. A coworker asked me a month ago if I could do this, and I said yes. It's been a good learning curve for me - both technically and from a business perspective. As S learns modern business rules at TAFE, I learn age old rules again and again. Giving a written quote, rule 1. Ensure the client and you are both aware of what is being offered for the price you quoted.
I went to a meeting with the client yesterday, and during the conversation i dropped in the price I thought I'd quoted for building the site. he questioned this and quoted a figure half of my figure. He believed the figure I'd quoted was a total figure including hosting, search engine optimisation and building. I thought that price was just for building. In a few minutes I went from doing a site dirt cheap for a coworker's spouse, to doing a site at an insulting price.
At the earlier price I had been content to solve problems as they arose, putting down the excess time as learning. At the new price, I gave up on problems if I couldn't solve them in 5 minutes. Buttons the client wants moved to a different spot causing problems due to clashing backgrounds? No worries. A week ago I would have googled, read up on WMODE options for Flash, experimented, perhaps rebuilt the buttons with a matching gradated background, but today I just shelved the idea and put the extra buttons with the old buttons, same background, no problems.
So the client won't be extremely happy, but now I put in writing why I do what I do - "To rebuild buttons with different backgrounds would take several hours and put this project outside budget".
With not having given the client a written quote I cannot say who is right or wrong. maybe we both believe our stores - differing understandings of the requirements of website development and the complexities involved could cause this. A written quote explaining the aspects of web development would avoid this, if I said upfront "A 5 page static text website with 4 simple buttons and no coding" would at least put us both on similar grounds, and avoid misunderstandings down the track.
On other stuff, just deleted the contact numbers for my local dealers. Went to do it b4, S said "gimme the numbers b4 you delete them", which seemed a little pointless, so I waited a couple of hours and then deleted them. It'll cause hell on Tuesday, but not deleting them would cause another kind of hell on Tuesday (payday). The continuing cycle of use and poverty that we have been in for a long time now, maybe 5 years. And before that we had use and finance, but still there was use. It's been the same for over a decade, nigh on 15 years for myself, so I'm willing to take bizarre measures. Perhaps not as bizarre as a naltrexone implant, but given that I'm scoring off a guy whose had three separate goes at the expensive process, the last ending in a medical debacle that would be a front page story had it not happened to a junkie, I have not a lot of faith in the slow release devices. My friend B in Melbourne went three years using speed instead of gabo whilst she had the implants. Then as soon as the monet for implants ran out she was using again.
Sometimes people want to change their moods chemically, perhaps it's because we live in times where gratifications is seen as a right, but whether that's true or not, chemically blocking one pathway only makes other pathways more attractive.
Legalise.