Venting and Suggestions on How To Avoid

I recently had an experience with a competitive bidding situation that has 
really got me upset. I'd like to share it and learn how to avoid getting 
caught up in anything like it ever again--if it's even possible to determine 
that in advance.

I received a request for a bid from a business owner who was referred to me 
by a client. The bid was to redesign an overgrown and poorly organized 
site--about 1,000 pages of content in all. I submitted my bid, fully aware he 
was taking competitive bids, along with a few suggestions and ideas for ways 
to improve the architectural design of the site.

When I followed up with the site owner today, he proudly informed me that he 
had decided to hire a 15 year old to redo the entire site for $xxx. She had 
done a "pro bono" site for a community organization he was in charge of and 
had just "blown everybody away" with her work. He was serious! This guy is a 
professional who makes his living providing specialized services to small 
businesses.

I gotta tell you the xxx made my blood boil. This kid has no concept of what 
she's getting into and this site owner is really taking advantage of this 
child. I've got two summer interns who will lots make more money than this 15 
year old will be making and they'll be doing less than 1/4 the work.

So now that I've vented. What tips can you share for ways to weed out the 
cheap-o's and "lookers" before you waste a lot of time and give away some 
free knowledge? 

Thanks for your time.

Judy Coker
Workable Webs

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