Quality costs money

Look, there are exceptions to every rule, but generally, quality costs money--and the more quality, the more money it costs.

Today I was asked if I could DJ for 60% less than my minimum price for a wedding reception. My response in short was yes--if the budget is a shoestring with the event at a rec center and the frills at a minimum. I said, however, that if she is willing and able to pay for a nice venue, nice food, nice flowers, and so on, then if she wants me to DJ for her, she's also going to have to pay my rate, the rate of a nice DJ. The truth is that, from the perspective of my materials costs, I could justify the lower price. However, time is a precious resource: if I'm doing a job for you, how much time it takes me is an important consideration in how much I charge for that job. And I invest a large amount of time in DJing a wedding reception because that's what it takes to do it right. Now, that doesn't mean that anyone has to be willing to pay me what I ask. But people hire me. And they do pay me what I ask because they understand that quality costs money and what I'm asking is a great price for the value I deliver. (NOTE: again, there are exceptions to the "quality costs money" rule; for instance, maybe this particular prospect can find a DJ of equal or better quality for the price she wants to pay. But any DJ who charges what she wants and delivers quality on par with what I deliver is, in all truth, doing bad business--he/she isn't charging enough for his/her services...and time!)

What's this have to do with ColdFusion? Well, it reminds me of a great blog post about ColdFusion (see--you thought I'd put this post in the wrong category, didn't you?) from Jason Delmore. Give it a read if you haven't already.