I know, I know, if I'm going to write a blog entry on notepad, I should just post it online instead of posting a bunch of postings all at once, and back date them all.

Today I had some promising news for my business. I called my first customer today, and he seemed very interested, and had that sweet combination of interest and money. It was almost like the fish was jumping in the boat!

At first when we talked I was a little disappointed because what he seemed to have in mind for me to do I would probably only charge $1,500, and their business seemed to be the type of business that could pay more. But as we talked, it soon became clear he was limiting what he wanted me to do because he thought it would cost a lot more! That means that my products have a higher perceived value to the customer than I thought.

I know a common pitfall for starting businesses is to think they need to charge a lot less than they actually do to cover their time, because unlike working for a company, you only get maybe 60% billable hours, so you have to raise your rates to cover all the time you spend marketing and other small business stuff.

I think I've done a good job in calculating that already, so I'll be able to offer the customer more than he was expecting for the same price, and also make more money in the process. I guess this assumes I haven't wildly missed something in estimating my time.

In any event, my next step is to give them a proposal with some concept ideas. I'm under no illusion that this means I'll be set for the coming weeks, but it's a positive first step for the business. We'll see how it goes...