ugh so this has been bugging me for a couple days. had a call with a property developer who wanted regular aerial documentation of a build, like monthly progress shots over maybe a 12 month project. i quoted $400 per visit which i thought was pretty reasonable given its about 2 hours of my time total including editing and delivering the files

he came back and said he had another guy who would do it for $175 and basically asked if i could match it. i said no and he went with the other guy. now im sitting here wondering if i priced myself out of what could have been a decent recurring gig or if i held my ground correctly

for context im fully insured, part 107 certified, shoot on a Mavic 3 and deliver properly color graded files same week. i have no idea what the other guy is delivering or if hes even insured. its frustrating because i feel like clients dont understand why there's a price difference

you held your ground correctly, full stop. $175 for two hours of work plus equipment, insurance, licensing costs ? that guy is either not accounting for his actual costs or hes just trying to build a portfolio and is basically working for free. neither of those situations is your problem to compete with

the recurring gig thing hurts i get it, but 12 months of underpriced work is worse than losing the job. youll find a developer who gets it, especially once they have a bad experience with the cheap option (and they usually do)

honestly one thing that might help going forward is just being upfront about what differentiates you before price even comes up. like if youre mentioning insurance, turnaround, color grading as part of how you pitch the job then when they get a $175 quote from some random they already have context for why yours is higher. harder to compare apples to apples that way

i read something once about not competing on price because there will always be someone willing to go lower, compete on reliability and quality instead. easier said than done when youre starting out but i think theres something to it