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Loved this one. When I was mid-20’s I found myself in a “how much” situation as well. Thankfully I had the gumption to “go for it.” I had found a solution to s

Loved this one. When I was mid-20’s I found myself in a “how much” situation as well. Thankfully I had the gumption to “go for it.” I had found a solution to save the business 100k+ when another contractor charged 10k+ and failed to complete a job because the business couldn’t pay them any more. The thing is, once I started digging into it, the other contractor had done 95% of the work; It just needed a nudge to get finished. But As far as the business was concerned, it was 0% done because it was an all-or-nothing situation (either it worked or didn’t). I did the final 5% and charged $3,000. I presented it as “I can fix the problem for 3k.” Was that completely fair to them I sometimes wonder? I don’t lose any sleep over it — they had a problem and I fixed it. I think it was wrong for the first contractor not to finish the work up and deal with a final invoice rather than insisting on pay in advance and abandoning them that close to the finish lone. As far as the business was concerned I was a very cheap solution, and I made an hourly rate of about $2k per hour.

somedude895 5y ago
It's crazy sometimes the gap between an appropriate hourly pay and the monetary value of the output. I'm sure OP would have come up with something in between as well, but being put on the spot and caught completely off guard like that for the first time I think the $100 was a fine deal.
xuki 5y ago
You saved the business 100k+ and you charged 3k? Next time call yourself a consultant and add another zero.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- lostlogin 5y ago
  Well they had failed to pay “$10k+”, so it seems likely that $30k wouldn’t work.
- thathndude 5y ago
  The business was pretty strapped for cash (they had to pay me $3k over two payments). But yeah, it was a 100k problem. All or nothing. Either it was fixed or not. The previous contractor had completed 97% of the work, had billed $10k, and then left when the company wouldn't pay any more. I swooped in, finished the last 3%, got all the glory, and charged 3k. The business thought I was a miracle worker. To be clear, the previous contractor did a crap job communicating with the business to explain how things were progressing and made it look like this would be a black hole the business was throwing money into. Had the previous contractor said "we're really close, we just need a little bit more money" the whole thing likely would have resolved without my intervention. But communication matters, I suppose.
StavrosK 5y ago
That's just economics. It's just like Apple or Samsung "magically" deciding that the price to fix your broken screen is just slightly under what it costs to buy the same phone used.
- tudorw 5y ago
  Old fashioned economics ;) http://happyplanetindex.org/ http://happyplanetindex.org/

somedude895 5y ago

It's crazy sometimes the gap between an appropriate hourly pay and the monetary value of the output. I'm sure OP would have come up with something in between as well, but being put on the spot and caught completely off guard like that for the first time I think the $100 was a fine deal.

xuki 5y ago

You saved the business 100k+ and you charged 3k? Next time call yourself a consultant and add another zero.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
lostlogin 5y ago
Well they had failed to pay “$10k+”, so it seems likely that $30k wouldn’t work.
thathndude 5y ago
The business was pretty strapped for cash (they had to pay me $3k over two payments). But yeah, it was a 100k problem. All or nothing. Either it was fixed or not. The previous contractor had completed 97% of the work, had billed $10k, and then left when the company wouldn't pay any more. I swooped in, finished the last 3%, got all the glory, and charged 3k. The business thought I was a miracle worker. To be clear, the previous contractor did a crap job communicating with the business to explain how things were progressing and made it look like this would be a black hole the business was throwing money into. Had the previous contractor said "we're really close, we just need a little bit more money" the whole thing likely would have resolved without my intervention. But communication matters, I suppose.

StavrosK 5y ago

That's just economics. It's just like Apple or Samsung "magically" deciding that the price to fix your broken screen is just slightly under what it costs to buy the same phone used.

tudorw 5y ago
Old fashioned economics ;) http://happyplanetindex.org/ http://happyplanetindex.org/