Said It Here

How to compete with clients hiring cheap unverified contractors

Lower-cost competitors and casual providers routinely underbid established rates by half, making potential clients scoff at standard professional pricing. This makes it difficult to secure quality clients who value expertise, often leaving independent providers feeling dejected and struggling to justify their worth.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Focusing on quality and doing the job right to justify higher prices
  2. 2
    explaining the value of professional designations to prospective clients

In their words

Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.

It’s tough to compete.source ↗

Ok_Search_2371 · r/Roofing · 59 upvotes

I just spoke with a potential fractional client for CFO work. They scoffed at my rate and gave me an example of an undesignated "CFO" who proposed 50% billing rates compared to mine.source ↗

Feeling dejected....source ↗

DL505 · r/Accounting · 6 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised