Pricing makes the difference

When Anthony Voigt started Brighton Consulting in 2001, he was a sole trader struggling to make ends meet. As he built his business he admits that he and his fellow director, John Keanmade pricing mistakes. The core of their business is developing and managing web sites for credit unions and their biggest error during this time was “providing a fixed price quote for delivering a piece of software.”

Today, they price project-based work on a more realistic hourly rate. Many of their biggest clients also pay a monthly retainer for Brighton's services, giving them a reliable income stream. The retainer is based on a discounted hourly rate, reflecting the importance of these ongoing relationships.

“Now that we’re six and a half years old, we’re actually starting to understand the kind of price that we should be charging for our work,” he says. “In the past, we were guilty too often of undercharging. Underpricing your services does them little justice and tends to diminish their value in the eyes of the customer”

Brighton’s unique selling proposition is the range of complementary skills they can bring to a client’s business. “The key thing for us is that we integrate design skills, technical skills and business strategy,” says Voigt. “Focus on the customers’ needs. You can have the greatest idea in the world, but if nobody wants to buy it, it won’t last.”

With 54 credit unions serving 300,000 clients, they are the largest supplier of integrated online services to the Australian credit union industry. “We’re busier than we’ve ever been,” says Voigt. Since then, he and his fellow director, John Kean, have built an e-business consultancy with 12 staff and a growing list of clients.