You Get What You Pay For

You Get What You Pay For 

- Josh Huck, Owner, Estimatica Cost Estimating, Inc.

It's an old adage that can apply to many things. But the bottom line is that your return typically equals your investment.

I recently relearned this again when I used a low bid carpenter to do some home renovations. He was almost half the price and it showed why quickly, so quickly in fact that I had to end up finishing the job myself properly. I had to spend Sunday fixing drywall and taping/floating walls instead of what I wanted to do, getting day drunk in an inflatable kiddie pool like a proper American.

Bottom line is this- we get calls all the time for our services and when we give out our hourly pricing structure we sometimes hear "oh wow that's a lot, I can get it done over at X for more than half that price". Okay, go do that. And call me when you need it fixed, because it happens quite a bit, especially with the unfathomably cheaper overseas firms that now seem to be popping up.

If you want to pay $15 an hour for an estimator or a carpenter or a design professional, you're going to get all fifteen dollars' worth of your investment. If you want the benefit of 20/30/40/50 plus years of experience, it costs a lot more- and in the end you get what you pay for.

Something to keep in mind is all, whether it's to hire child care, an architect to design your home, a cost estimating firm, a hitman for your ex (it's never an actual hitman, it's always someone from the FBI- you've seen the tv shows, stop falling for this), you get what you pay for simple as that.

There is a reason there are experts in each field, and there is a reason they cost what they do. While there is always someone that can do a job cheaper, the right person often costs a bit more, and it will save you headache and heartache if you pay to get it done right the first time.

I'm now going to go write on a chalkboard a hundred times "I will practice what I preach, I will practice what I preach".