About 5 to 6 years ago, I used to work with an IT company that was - TopicsExpress



          

About 5 to 6 years ago, I used to work with an IT company that was quite famous in the Muslim market. But they kept selling websites for 1k to 5k. Were talking about a proprietary CMS they had invested in making for the past 10 years. I could not understand why were we selling so low. Yes, perhaps the product needed to be updated, or changed altogether. But why is the value of the end product so low when theres so much effort to building it? I wasnt in charge of sales in that company. I was only a technical guy involved in the asp.Net work of the company. Then an opportunity came with a government customer, and they had run out of time, and needed a website done. I decided to hijack the negotiation, because I know exactly the price my colleagues had in their heads. And when I probed about what they needed, and how much it was going to cost and ascertained their budget, I came to a figure that was about $15,000. My colleagues jumped. They have never sold a website with similar requirements at that price. They then told me after the meeting, they thought I was crazy to quote so high. My senior colleague took over the remainder of that negotiation, and they came to a price of about $9500 for a 1.5 months website project of which, I know my team will complete in 2 weeks tops. That was the largest sale theyve ever made for a website of that quality and scope. To be frank, I thought their pricing was nuts. Web development is a labour costs game. We have 2 developers, 1 designer and 1 boss to pay. How the heck are you going to pay yourself if you cant communicate the value of the product or service to the customer that does no justice to the complexity of your job? I can never understand why Muslims undervalue their self-worth. Whats worse is that Muslim-to-Muslim business is all about bro, can help me lower the price or not?. Everything is about price cutting. Why do you think Malays are in the lower pay scale? Stop that. If we really want to help each other, look at the value their solution brings to your business. And the seller must help the buyer make the solution affordable enough while maximising the profit as much as possible. I am in the business of helping the Muslim economy grow. I provide them with the affordable tools to help them improve their branding with a modern looking website, improve productivity by systemising their digital marketing, and drive results with eCommerce software, mobile apps, and marketplace platforms. But if custom websites, complete with tech support, is going to cost only $1k one-time, be prepared to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. We are 13.9% of the population. We cannot be occupying the cellar because we re-enforce self-defeating, self-fulfilling prophecies of our doom. You, the Muslim contributor of the economy is worth more than you think. You may have started from below. Some of us, worked as a cleaner. I failed miserably in business, I took up a security guard job once to tide over. But one friend who started off as a cleaner, is today running an IT company with over 6-8mill revenue annually. There are many stories of Malays who had humbling experiences, and are extremely successful today. Find them, learn from them, and start re-evaluating your self-worth. Once we value ourselves highly. We will attract people who will pay us our self-worth. And we will be able to grow the Muslim economy. But whats just as important, is to grow the Akhirah economy. Dont you think if the collective 13.9% self-worth is multiplied, therell be more zakat to contribute? Wouldnt that create a significant impact to many of our brothers who are living below the poverty line? The Halal economy MUST grow exponentially. But it must be done synergistically. Together. Win-Win-Win.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 17:19:13 +0000

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