The common rule around here is to charge more. This is also promoted a lot by patio11 on HN and on Twitter.
I would counter this with the fact that sometimes it could backfire. Just like in a job negotiation, a contract negotiation might end up with no contract at all.
So while it's nice to hear about this, applying it in practice generally works for new customers while the original/current customers are paying your bills at the normal rate. Trying this with your current customers might lead to no customers.
There are a lot of glass ceilings out there and mental blocks on both sides of the negotiating table. Even a deal that works for everybody might not happen because people are not entirely rational when talking about money.
"Charge more" is rhetoric[0]. If you look closely at those posts where patio11 advocates charging more, his reasoning for doing so is that most highly skilled developers undercharge for their services. His advice simply doesn't apply outside of that context.
[0]: If you don't know the difference between Rhetoric and Dialectic, I urge you to read Rhetoric by Aristotle. It will help explain some of the problems you may or may not have when talking with non-technical people.
> his reasoning for doing so is that most highly skilled developers undercharge for their services. His advice simply doesn't apply outside of that context.
Being highly skilled is a personal auto-evaluation. One might (perhaps wrongly) believe this and still not manage to raise rates.
> I urge you to read Rhetoric by Aristotle. It will help explain some of the problems you may or may not have when talking with non-technical people.
This is an interesting piece of advice. You think this would be a common trait among technical people?
I never did read Rhetoric, perhaps I'll find time over the holidays.
> I would counter this with the fact that sometimes it could backfire.
Well yeah, especially when you consider that the people writing those things have no way to know if you should charge more or not. It's actually pretty silly to respond to someone on HN and pretend you know that they should charge more. This is one of those situations where free advice is worth what you pay for it.
I would counter this with the fact that sometimes it could backfire. Just like in a job negotiation, a contract negotiation might end up with no contract at all.
So while it's nice to hear about this, applying it in practice generally works for new customers while the original/current customers are paying your bills at the normal rate. Trying this with your current customers might lead to no customers.
There are a lot of glass ceilings out there and mental blocks on both sides of the negotiating table. Even a deal that works for everybody might not happen because people are not entirely rational when talking about money.