Ask HN: Are big budget projects losing you money?

That’s a statement I hear every week from freelancers who pay me for freelance leads. I’m not sure why $30,000 is the magical number but apparently it is.

Leads below this magical threshold get rejected by people who are self-labeled as “desperate for work” and sometimes even in a dry spell, but how can a $5,000-$10,000 project really be that unprofitable for one-person?

Why do most freelancers even prefer big budgets anyway? Big budgets mean big projects - which are hard to scope out and actually finish. When you finally deliver them, there’s always more revisions. They drag on. They kill profitability.

Of course, this can also happen with small projects at a smaller scale… which is my point.

If you’re not able to make a $5,000 project profitable, you’re less likely to make a larger, more complicated project profitable - right?

When I examine my past 5-figure freelance projects, I find most of the budget went to things like: meetings, proposals, presentations, revisions, emailing, and following up on things.

I can’t help but wonder what would happen if I cut these things out and replaced them with nothing. Would the client really be worse off?

I’d be able to focus on things that actually mattered instead of fluff and I’d charge them less.

So what do you think?

• Have you ever felt like big budget projects could be losing you money?

• What would you do if you had to make a $3k project profitable instead? What would you cut out?

• Have you ever hired a freelancer like you for $30k+ project to help your own business? Why not? If it’s truly a great investment why aren’t you paying for it?

(Note: While I do agree that some highly-specialized consultants shouldn’t work for less than $X0,000 — I don’t think that’s the case for 90% of people.)