>Back in the day (late 80's early 90's) I worked for myself. I charged 45$/hr and specialized in the very small project - around 100-120 hours. Sometimes I'd get told 'I can get a FoxPro programmer for 10$ an hour!" and I'd tell them to go get that ten dollar programmer and in 6 months, they'd pay me 75$ an hour to fix and finish.

A few times we'd hear „300 for general ledger? There are guys out there who sell that for 100!“. „Yes, we know, but we don't do that kind of stuff“. Amazingly, this sealed the deal.

Because anyone who wanted to know would easily find out that those guys were hotshot, take the money and run, gunslingers. Their apps were crap, most of the standards we stick to didn't mean much to them.