so this keeps happening to me and im not sure if im handling it right. i'll send over a quote, usually for real estate or a small commercial job, and then like 2-3 days later they come back with 'oh we were thinking more like half that' or 'can you do it for $X, that's what the last guy charged us'

i've been flying commercially for about 3 years now, part 107 certified, decent gear, and i really do try to price fairly. but it feels like every other client wants to treat this like buying a used car. do you just hold firm? meet in the middle? i've started losing jobs to cheaper pilots and honestly i dont know if i should be worried about that or if those are just clients i dont want anyway

would love to hear how more experienced people handle this, especially if you've figured out a way to frame the value without sounding defensive about it

honestly the clients who haggle hard before you even start the work are almost always the ones who are a nightmare on shoot day too. i've caved a few times when i really needed the income and basically every single time i regretted it, either they kept asking for more than what was agreed, or payment was slow, or both.

what helped me was building out a tiered package structure instead of doing custom quotes every time. when someone says 'the last guy charged less' i just point to my packages and explain what's included and why. makes it feel less personal, like i'm not defending myself, i'm just showing them a menu. also makes it clear that going cheaper means getting less. some clients actually respect that more than a vague quote they think they can negotiate down.

you'll lose some jobs. that's fine. the clients who hire based on lowest price are not the ones building long term relationships with you anyway.

yeah this happened to me on literally my third paid job lol. i panicked and dropped my price way too much and then spent the whole shoot kind of resenting the situation which probably affected the work honestly. i think just being confident and a little matter of fact about it helps, like 'this is the rate for what you're describing, happy to adjust scope if the budget is fixed' and leave it at that. easier said than done though when you're still building your client list