talent doesn't pay like it used to.

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Am I the only one who notices that even though you have a talent and can do things that many people can't, they still want it for a cheap low ball price.
 
Unfortunately that is the new way, pay talent the bare minimum, however its a two-way street. As consumers we also have come to expect the best quality for the lowest price, hence its a trickle down effect.

I have read before how companies like walmart/clothing companies pay pennies for good, mark it up a 1000% and sell for a profit. The little guy making the item ends up hurting.
 
Originally Posted By: madRiver
Depends on your clientele and if they appreciate your said skill in the work. What do you do?


I own a landscaping business. I have one customer who negotiates on everything now. Makes it hard to price things cause I never know what random number he's going to come up with. He used to let me do they work and I'd send him a bill at the end of the month.
 
Yep, it's all about the absolute bottom dollar. Regardless of value. Sometimes the best value isn't necessarily the cheapest.
 
Originally Posted By: FirstNissan
Unfortunately that is the new way, pay talent the bare minimum, however its a two-way street. As consumers we also have come to expect the best quality for the lowest price, hence its a trickle down effect.

I have read before how companies like walmart/clothing companies pay pennies for good, mark it up a 1000% and sell for a profit. The little guy making the item ends up hurting.


That's why you don't see mom and pop stores anymore, they can't compete with stores that buy 10,000 pairs of socks for 10 cents each.
 
Originally Posted By: FirstNissan
Unfortunately that is the new way, pay talent the bare minimum, however its a two-way street. As consumers we also have come to expect the best quality for the lowest price, hence its a trickle down effect.

I have read before how companies like walmart/clothing companies pay pennies for good, mark it up a 1000% and sell for a profit. The little guy making the item ends up hurting.


I remember 2-3 years back i got my son a $110 set of headphones for his laptop. He "needed" them he said for his college class's. Anyways I got them for him (from Wal-Mart) and for the fun of it about a week or two later I looked them up online and found out Amazon sold them for $36. I felt pretty burnt about the event so now I always double check the prices on anything more then $100 if I don't need it asap.
 
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Don't let it bother you, Plain & Simple. Don't give discounts, Brother & law deals, or Trades. It will NEVER work out in your favor!

I love it when a customer tells me so & so will do it cheaper....Good, Take it too them! I set my pricing to make a living & feed my family. I don't even mention the chemicals I work with causes Cancer & Respiratory illnesses. My mentor that taught me the Automatic Transmission business died at 56 years old of lung cancer....He didn't smoke.
 
A society that scorns excellence in plumbing, because plumbing is a humble endeavor and praises shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted endeavor will have neither theories or pipes that hold water.

Paraphrased but you get the idea.

Smoky
 
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
Am I the only one who notices that even though you have a talent and can do things that many people can't, they still want it for a cheap low ball price.


What is your gig?

IMO if your talent is something in high demand, you will get top dollar. Football players/Hockey/Baseball sports are huge.

Sometimes, your talent isn't in high demand, so you create demand, like Bob Ross did with paintings, Tiger Woods with golf.

If you are in a very competitive field, it probably won't pay out, unless you got a Union, a guild or some member representative body.

Local bands suffer the same pains, Bars go cheap and local bands struggle, even well know bands and such struggle. Your talent, your style might not be in much demand.

If something isn't working, change it up!

I knew a guy in Virginia that could juggle KNIVES while balancing at the same time. Like this guy did:


You got to stand firm on your price, and deliver.
 
Being in the automotive field, I get people several times a week trying to get me to look at their car for free. I know people in other skilled trades that get the same thing. People these days feel that everyone owes them something for nothing.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Ya I get it all the time. Do these people try to bargain the price down at the McDonald drive through too?


I have been stuck behind more than one person doing exactly that at drive-throughs.
 
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
Originally Posted By: madRiver
Depends on your clientele and if they appreciate your said skill in the work. What do you do?


I own a landscaping business. I have one customer who negotiates on everything now. Makes it hard to price things cause I never know what random number he's going to come up with. He used to let me do they work and I'd send him a bill at the end of the month.


Keep him as a customer and do the bare necessary amount of work to keep your cash flow going and find more customers then cut him loose.
 
My daughter just had her kitchen remodeled. Sink not square under window, all water fittings loose & leaking, drain pipe fell out of garbage disposal, 1/4" out of square gaps at ends of new counter tops and the wires to the dish washer were left barely tightened, enough that the dish washer was shutting off as it ran. Why? Because the local "huge" lumber yard type store puts all of it's installs out to the lowest bidder. It's quantity now instead of quality.
 
This is an issue in my field as well. Tech schools are job farms for new meat so companies can pay $15-18/hour.

These kids produce [censored] work, get canned, and then they hire the next crop. Once the bank time is in they toilet the start looking for "contractors" to bail them out and the phone calls are hilarious...

Over 10 years experience, more certs and airframes than you can shake a stick at, and they still offer $17? They can keep the kids. Hope they work out for you.
 
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Very common problem in my industry as well. However, marine repair and refinishing is one industry well known for simply telling people to go pound sand.

If someone starts talking bottom dollar, I stop talking to them. We all benefit from the simple knowledge that no matter where else they go, they're going to be told to go screw themselves.

Marine repair is a pretty small community, and there are few people dumb enough to start a price war.

We also benefit from the fact that nobody is or ever has been interested in making a chain of marine repair companies. There's no Mieneke or Jiffy Lube for boats.

Boats are made the way that cars were in the 1920's. It takes real knowledge and real experience to be able to do heavy duty work on these things, and nobody is going to trust a yokel with a $90 set of Craftsman tools to touch them.
 
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
Am I the only one who notices that even though you have a talent and can do things that many people can't, they still want it for a cheap low ball price.


What makes you think you have talent?

Originally Posted By: FirstNissan
Unfortunately that is the new way


There's nothing new about it. People have always been trying to get more for less. Be it products or service, human nature hasn't changed much.
 
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