I ran into a situation the other day that just about offended me when it was said. The more I have thought about it, the more puzzled I have become.

I run a business. I charge what I think is a fair rate. We have $50,000 worth of machinery to produce the products we do. I'd like to think that $60-70 per hour is fair for our business. When I go into other places that do the same thing we do, I always see signs on the wall that say things like "Our shop rate is $90 per hour".

So all in all, I guess we are at the low end for our business.

So I'm in a meeting about 8 months ago, and someone asks this computer tech guy "What's your rate". He says without blinking an eye, "$130 per hour". At the time I thought "Wow, that's pricey, I can't afford him", and the person that asked said "Well, that's about right for IT work".

So, I thought I was just out of the loop.

Fast forward to last week, I'm in a meeting with the owner of that company, and others. He whips out some marketing material he had printed. It was a lot of stuff, lots of pages, etc. He then says "Yeah, and I saved a boatload of money on this. I got it online and I saved 75% over what my local printer wanted for it".

That really offended me. Why, you ask? Yeah, I thought you would.

I can't get past that level of arrogance. The printer has $50,000 digital printers, inks that costs $1500 a pop, etc. So they have to make a living. Do you think if they charged you $130 per hour, that would be okay? Apparently not. Apparently it's only okay to make $130 per hour if you are him. If you supply services to him, then he would like you to make $17.50 per hour. That's the printer's $70 per hour rate, cut by 75%.

Am I wrong, or is that extremely arrogant? Would you be offended if someone told you that they saved 75% over your cost by going to the internet, and then handed you a bill for $130 per hour?

Just curious and opening up a discussion while a job is running (bored).