Lost In Cheap Translation

A potential client approaches; they have a complex website and they need to add another language.

Client: “We are losing a million euros a year because we do not have multilingual functionality. As we are an international company, it is very important for us to have another language.”

Usually adding another language (translations excluded) is very simple, but the website itself is very big and requires a lot of customised work, so the offered price is 1000 euros.

Client: “Are you insane? No, we cant invest such an amount of money, this is ridiculous. I can pay 50.”

Me: “This is a very complex website; it is not enough just to install a plugin; it requires a lot of customization. But the strangest part for me is that you say you cant invest this money. I am actually offering you to transform your 1000 euro to a million euros, and you say my offer is not fair? How is that even possible?”

Client: “What?”

Me: “You told me yourself, you are losing a million euros per year because your website is not multilingual. If you said that only to look cool, well… anyway, good luck with the project, I hope you can find someone who can do it for 50 euros, but we can’t do that.”

Never heard from him again.