Years ago, I was called into an office of an old friend whose boss was in need of slides for a business presentation. Boss was actually the founder and president and he had his slide needs on the front and back of a cocktail napkin. The business was a very high priced software package for banking back room operations (currency evaluation by the second). I didnt know didly about the area but I knew how to ask questions. And after an hour with the pres (who was leaving in day a half to Hong Kong and TOkyo, I found out that he was making presentations to key banking groups over there wanting to come back with $25million seed money for next generation of software. The sldies I was to make were for that. I asked to see his proposal to these people - none. I asked to see him business plan that spelled out the time line - none. SO I spend 2 hours asking more questions and went back to office to develop business plan, proposal - no slides (which I had been called in for,.) I worked 27 hours straight and hand delivered duplicated sets to him at airport at 8 am on SUnday in ice storm.
When I put together the bill, I realized that we had never mentioned what this would cost. So I put together invoice prepared to do battle. $3,000. (1982 dollars)
A week later, I got call from the person who had brought me in in the first place and I thought for sure he was going to quiblle on invoice. I was going to hold my ground. He mumbled on and on and finally said that E. had made his presentations and gotten commitment of $32million. I heard this and could only say to myself (WOW!!!) and then he (treasurer) said "E and I have a problem with your invoice of $3000. And I slowly started to put words together for a response, when he continued "we have upped that to $10,000 and feel that that is proably low, considering the outcome. That was a wow!!! but I also had a new client and a couple of years of computer based promotion programs.
My point is, that we work too hard on the pricing based on materials and hourly wages. "What the market will bear (or bare)" is very important to keep in mind. Yes, most of what I did had to be priced on hourly basis. Video production is a very competitive area (particularly when all the wedding video folks start bidding against you).
But "what am I worth?" is an important question to ask. It is not about what machines I have and how no one else has this array of big machines. "What am I worth?"