A Listed Company Told Me: "You Charge Too Little"

One job after another

When they found me in 2024, they needed a new direction online.

First came the Shopify store, which launched. Then they wanted a corporate website, and that was me too. After that, more than twenty requests came in, one after another: revising product pages, changing the search approach, adding new features.

More than twenty times, and not once did they go to anyone else.

Trouble with Google search

Along the way, we ran into some problems with Google search. Traffic came in, but conversions were unstable. Where was the problem, and how should it be fixed?

Their in-house tech team had been learning AI. They had people, money, and every tool they needed. They asked AI how to optimize for search, how to build a store, how to write product pages. The AI's answers were thorough, the logic was clear, and the process was right.

But hearing the answer and actually going live are two different things. What changed in search, and did the numbers move? The pages were adjusted, but did the user experience get better or worse? What should change, and how? Someone has to actually look, actually judge, and actually do the work.

Those are professional skills. AI lowers the cost of execution. It can't lower the cost of judging quality.

They still came to me. Not because AI doesn't work, but because deciding whether the work is right, and how to fix it, takes a professional.

How I see it

I use AI to write code every day. AI removes the premium on writing. It can't remove the premium on being responsible.

A listed company with money, a team, and the know-how to use AI already has the tools. What they need isn't tools. They need someone who can tell whether the work is right, and who can fix it right away when something goes wrong. Not handing the work to someone who doesn't know the background, but having one person carry it from start to finish.

That person is me.

What he said

In his words: "You charge too little, don't you? You're responsible, and any problem gets solved anytime."

Someone from a listed company, telling me I'm cheap.

Cheap means the price I publish: ¥600 a day for new clients, ¥500 for returning clients. There's one price sheet, and it doesn't change depending on who's asking.

Other software companies or studios usually quote ¥1,500 to ¥3,000 for major changes, depending on the size of the company and the negotiation. I don't work that way. A listed company or a startup, the rate is the same. Which tier this project falls under, I won't write here.

When he called me responsible, there was a reason. For more than twenty requests, big and small, they came to me. That tangle of Google search problems, I fixed together with their team. Problems got solved whenever they came up. Being "responsible" isn't a line I stuck on myself. It's what more than twenty rounds of work add up to.

Back to the point

Being cheap is a fact, but it shouldn't be your reason for choosing me.

What you should look at is whether someone is responsible. A quote is one thing, responsibility is another. Whatever is in the quote, I'll finish. And once it's done, if something comes up, is there someone to judge it for you, someone to fix it for you, one person watching over the project from start to finish? That's what service is.

It's not about whether AI is right. It's about whether the person is right. When someone takes responsibility, things go smoothly.

Where should your time go? Into winning your own customers. Hand the website to someone professional, responsible, and in it for the long run. No need to wrestle with it yourself, and no need to keep switching people. With one person carrying it from start to finish, things get done faster.