Clients trying to dictate my price

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They beat you down on price bc you are training them to do so. Have your business costs gone up even slightly since last year? Why should you charge less?

I could understand the discounts if you were a larger business and used the discounts to keep long term customers, but the constant playing around with your own pricing sends a message that the prices are not fixed and very liquid. The rushing to do deliveries and free shipping are all signs of being super flexible on your pricing and sending the message that what you have as your original price is something that can be heavily brought down. If you stop sending this message your problem goes away.

\> I give them discounts and freebies all the time. Why? When is the last time your lawyer did that for you? Your mechanic? Your doctor?

You say: "Here's how I can reduce the scope if that's the budget we have to work with." I have a client right now who asked if we could do certain work for the rate at which they've been paying a freelancer via UpWork. I said --No, we're an agency. If you're happy with someone you found on UpWork then I can just hire them for you.... *---Ah, we're not really happy with the work, just like the price.* ---OK then. What we're offering is that you will be happy. Deal, at my price.

A friend of mine wanted to have a house built. She had two quotes. One was from a small project company that only worked with subcontractors and had only been around for two or three years. The other was from a long-established construction company. So she played the two companies off against each other. She told the second company the first company's quoted price to try and drive the price down. Then she told the first company the second company's new quote, and the second company lowered its price again. She repeated this several times until the price had dropped drastically. I warned her! There's a limit! Everything has its price. If you push it too far, the company will end up cutting corners on quality, etc. As expected, the second construction company stopped the price negotiations, saying: "We can't reduce the price any further without compromising on quality, and we won't do that. After all, we have to protect our reputation." If tyou still want it cheaper, good luck. The project company, on the other hand, drastically reduced the price again. She asked me for advice: I replied: 1. Price shouldn't be the deciding factor! 2. The second company was honest and reputable. 3. The project company will undercut every price, and then pass this price pressure on to their subcontractors. It's predictable that this will lead to problems. Take the offer from the, in my opinion, reputable local construction company. But she decided otherwise. After the project company threw in a free open fireplace, which was originally supposed to cost €16,000, she chose that company. Luckily, I was able to persuade her to agree to 30 installments, essentially one payment per week. This keeps the risk of loss low. It happened as probably everyone expected: During the shell construction phase, she paid another installment of €12,000 on Friday. On Monday, the various subcontractors arrived at the construction site, loaded materials and tools, and were about to leave.They hadn't been paid for two weeks. The project company had filed for bankruptcy! Only then did she begin researching the company and find other affected homeowners. Among other things, the managing director had already filed for bankruptcy three times and then started over under a new name. Now she was stuck with a half-finished shell of a house. Fortunately, her loss amounted to "only" €12,000, which she claimed in court. Afterward, she had to negotiate directly with all the subcontractors and pay them so that the work could be completed. Friends and relatives also had to step in to keep the losses to a minimum. As a result, the completion of the house was delayed by almost 12 months! She couldn't afford the exterior plastering for another two years. The final price increased by approximately 45% compared to the original quote. And all of this certainly caused her several sleepless nights. She would have been better off building with the construction company that wouldn't be blackmailed. As a reputable company, you have to be able to say "NO!" The simplest way: You want us to reduce the price even further? Okay, suggest where we should cut corners on quality! You're the business owner! You also have a responsibility. Your company, your prices. So your prices should be well-calculated. And "well-calculated" in this case means there's a Price floor you can't go below.

You need to get better clients. I'm kinda mouthy when people do that stuff to me and I know exactly what I would have said... I'll do about half the job for about half the pay... deal? Stop giving deals and free stuff. It makes you look cheap and is why they treated you like this. Go find some new clients and keep us updated on your progress. Good luck!