There are a million reasons why we all (myself included) undercharge for a website. Actually, for me, it's one reason - some money is better than no money. Some businesses are so cashed strapped that the thought of shelling out money for a webpage has them clutching their chest and screaming 'can I get a receipt please'. But the problem is, for a cash-strapped freelancer, that I'd rather get that little money than turn down the work. But by simply accepting a lower rate, you're just asking for (and will usually get) a whole host of problems.

Pounds per Hour

If you're dealing with a small company, chances are you didn't offer them an all singing, all dancing $100,000 website. You probably went in offering the basics, for a basic price. The problem is now, that they've asked for you to knock 20% off that price.

If you're building them a basic webpage, there's probably not much room for manoeuvre on what you actually deliver. It's not like you can take off the visitors video sharing page or the online-chat facility... But now you've got to build the same basic website, but for a much more basic wage. You pound per hour just took a big hit, and when this project starts dragging on for weeks and weeks, you're gonna really regret that.

The Groundwork

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. And if there's one thing that monkeys can never be bothered doing, it's taking their time to get a really understanding of the business, the requirements, the industry, competitors, finding good examples, bad examples etc etc. They're rubbish at that. They're rubbish because why should they care? You're only paying peanuts. OK, enough with the peanuts... You won't do the proper investigation because there's not much money involved. You'll want to get stuck in to get the site done to get paid. The end result will suffer.

You get what you pay for

For the most part, I've found this to be true. You pay more, you generally get better quality. If I'm charging more for a website, I have way more time to worry about the smaller details that differentiate a really amateur-looking site, to one that looks good and fits the business.

If you've agreed to slash the price it's inevitable that you will be rushing all stages. You're not going to go to them with great initial concepts that have been well thought out after a week of scratching your head - you're going to to go to them with a few quick mock ups in Photoshop and quietly be crossing your fingers hoping they like what they see. They won't like what they see, and you'll be back to the drawing board for more punishment, probably taking their impromtu meeting sketches home with you too.

Did you get my email?

By accepting a rubbish rate for the website, you just dropped quite low on their priorities list. Some small business have electricity bills that run into the thousands per month. Do you think they can really be bothered to devote much time to the little freelancer that keeps buzzing in their ear like an annoying mosquito? You agreed to the price, it's not much money, so go make the site, why are you wasting my time on such a trivial thing? Shoo little freelancer shoo. And no, I don't think I got that email. Charge more and you'll have their attention. You'll have their attention and they'll take you seriously.

The Cherry on Top

There's no cherry on top of this pie... No time to properly investigate, rushed designs, and rushed design amendments mean that the end result, whilst it might be acceptable, is no work of art. You accepted the work whilst thinking 'well at least it'll be another on the portfolio'. Well, it's unlikely you'll feel that great about sticking it at the top of your portfolio so you didn't really get what you wanted out of doing it cheap. Ah, but what about all the work that'll come from doing this website? Do you think your ex-client is likely to run around town telling everyone what a great job you did? Or do you think, if asked, he'll say "yeah it's alright. was pretty cheap too". The only people he'll send you way will be other people looking for a cheap website. He won't be shy about telling them how little you charge either.

Catch 22

The problem is, there are plenty of times when we really do need the money. And there are plenty of times when it's quite clear that somebody won't be able to afford anything unless you drop your price. If you are really backed into a corner, I suggest you start hacking away at the (probably) short requirements list. Make it one page. Ditch the Contact Us form. No they can't have 24 sections with 24 subsections. Tell them you want all content ready before you can start. Tell them they have to trawl the Internet for images to use. Tell them... You get the picture.