The estimate was £8k to £12k. They budgeted £8k.

Quoting a range feels like honesty about uncertainty. To the buyer it reads as a price with an optional penalty attached, and the penalty is yours to absorb.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for The estimate was £8k to £12k. They budgeted £8k.

A range looks like the fair way to quote work you cannot fully specify. It tells the client the truth: this job could reasonably land anywhere between two numbers, depending on what we find. Nobody is being misled. Then the job lands at £11,400, comfortably inside the range that was quoted, agreed and signed, and the conversation is difficult anyway. The client’s finance director has £8,000 in the forecast. The invoice reads as a 43% overrun. And the firm that quoted honestly is now defending arithmetic it never got wrong.…

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