Are You Too Cheap?

When trying to get work, do you price work cheaper to clients you have past (good) relationships with? Maybe they have good contract terms, pay quickly, have good field staff, etc. Is the price reduction really worth the discount?

Do you expect vendors and subs who you have worked well with in the past to offer preferred pricing? If not, do you often just go with the cheapest price? Is it worth it in the end?

Cheap isn't always your best option especially with food.

Discounts may help get work but are they good in the end? Have you thought about running a short numerical cost/benefit analysis of offering/not offering a discount and getting/not getting work? If you offer a discount on the wrong job you are more likely to not just lose fee but to actually pay to do the work through an overall project loss. If someone offers a discount to you, should you take it? If they do good work on every job, why would they need to discount their services to get work?

There are countless situations where discounts may or may not be good options. Are you asking the right questions to make sure going too cheap on offering or taking a discount doesn't bite you in the shorts at the end of the job? Don't be cheap. Be right and be profitable.