A Hobby or A Profession

This is inspired by a lunch meeting I had last month.  As you may/may not know, I work for Federated Media in Fort Wayne Indiana. Primarily for WOWO Radio however we have a digital division that is top notch too and I offer a whole collection of new media solutions along with radio advertising solutions.

Website development is in our wheelhouse.

I’ve developed websites on my own and I have worked for a website development firm in the past, so I know a few things that the average business owner doesn’t know about the web.

I don’t build websites anymore except maintaining my own.

I trust my team at Federated Digital Solutions to be the best and have seen the successes they have created for clients of all types.

So last week at my lunch meeting, I knew the value of what I could offer.

The gentleman I was meeting with did not understand the value however.

My introductory price for a basic website is currently $1200.  This is a website that allows a business to have an online identity with a few appropriate pages and start building credibility.  After all, if you are a business and don’t have a website, people will question your legitimacy.

After the meeting, I got a message from a mutual friend who was at the lunch meeting that instead of using Federated Digital Solutions, he was going to try and find someone who would build him a website for $100.  Yes, I said, one hundred dollars.

The problem was not my price, the problem was the gentleman did not understand the value of what he was going to be selling.

For years he has been creating custom art as a hobby, and he hasn’t developed the mindset of transforming his art into a profession.

When we talked about how much he would be selling his custom art for, he was talking about $100. And he was nervous about asking that amount.

He can easily charge between $1000 and $5000.  But he doesn’t believe it yet.

He is still treating his art as a hobby and not a profession.  That’s too bad, because I see his value more than he sees it himself.

I don’t care if you buys a website from me or not.  It’s a small amount in my world.  But I do care that he is not giving himself the proper value for his work.

Food for thought:  Are you treating your work as a hobby or as a profession?