Cracking and Cracked

Some people don’t know what symbiosis is. Some people are too dense to know that anyway.
Today was a case in point. I’ve been contributing my two sen regularly at this web portal where women are supposed to help women start their own business from home. I’ve been a REGULAR contributor to the forums for almost a year and a half now. I write articles, I help out, I do the things when others just want to know “Eh, how can I make money from home ah?” I even allocate a sum of money to advertise in their offline quarterly newsletter. You could call me a supporter of this particular place. When my other half says that we should take a break from advertising in the newsletter, I tell him, no. We should support such people and such websites. After all, they are advocating what we advocate all along – that you can make a living working from home.
Many weeks ago, the website people contacted us and wanted us to help them. Supposedly for our OWN good if we took up their offer.
But the offer was simply something that we could not accept. Mainly because if we did, we’d be making a loss. And all because they wanted to compete with some other people out there who were trashing their behinds! Number one rule when making an offer: make an offer that’s so good that the other party cannot refuse. Not make an offer that the other party immediately refuses because it’s so demeaning!
Excuse me. We may work from home but we are not destitute. We do not accept any and every offer which comes our way because we value our web design services, we know we have the skills and competence and we know we provide good stuff to our clients.
And madame, we don’t just cut down the competitor via pricing. For if we did it each time the competitor slashed his price, where would we be?
I remember once many years ago I had a boss who loved to play the price game. He’ll give the lowest pricing just so he could win the account he was pitching for. But he never made a cent and he made plenty of enemies. He was the worst in the industry because he kept slashing prices so much so that everyone grew weary.
I think in business, one must stand for something. I also remember a quote which goes something like, if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. True.
Maybe other people like the price game. I am not Tesco or Carrefour so I don’t have to play along. I offer solid, quality work and it belittles me that someone thinks we’d just go along for the quantity of business instead of the quality of business. The audacity!
So yes, I am mighty pissed. I am pissed because some people have no regard whatsoever for other people’s feelings. They don’t give a damn because they’re just thinking of themselves.
And coming from someone whom I had high regard for, well, it just goes to show that sometimes, it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be, yeah?