- No money at all. In a moment like that the filter is simple: they pay or they do not.
And at that moment two of them call. Both shops are in standardization and certification. Both want to automate the insides. Both are ready to pay, in a manner of speaking.
Russian Register is relatively large, federal, works with serious clients.
ProffExpert is local, smaller, quieter.
Same field: quality management systems, ISO, audits. Direct competitors.
There was no NDA. Formally I had the right to take both. In practice I would see one shop's guts and could carry them across the road. If either found out, trust would end the same day. The feature queue would fight itself anyway.
I took both. The other option was no work.
Two bills
The less they pay, the more they ask. There is no logic. The bill still adds up.
Russian Register, larger budget: a clear spec, living deadlines, an understanding that code is not a trick, money without delay.
ProffExpert, smaller budget: let's first see what you make; change this; and this; why so long; a tiny change; we will transfer next week for sure.
ProffExpert took three times the hours. They paid half as much. The hourly rate came out as a joke. The cheap client bought more of my week.
The secret did not live long. One of the shops, I no longer remember which, learned about the other. Maybe a shared acquaintance. Maybe they added it up themselves. The line was one: you are working for them.
Formally I had broken nothing. One project closed early. I finished the second already as an unreliable contractor. No catastrophe. An aftertaste. I sat down in that hole myself.
What follows
When the pocket is empty, the filter "they have money / they do not" hires me two clients who are already at war. Clean on paper. Not clean at the till or in the name.
Since then, on the first call, if a person starts with haggling, I already know the price of that discount. Better a week without an order than a month with someone who buys my week at a third of the rate. One competitor in a niche is enough. I do not take the second anymore, even if both nod at a modest budget.
