You're probably right, but the thing I learned from the first successful startup I was involved in that has stuck with me my whole career is the marketing power of customer service. It kills me when we can't make a client happy.
Maybe the trick is, pick good clients.
(The startup was an ISP, in 1996. Even in 1996, an indie ISP was hard to differentiate from the majors and incumbents. Mike and Tracy, the guys who ran the company, managed to build an unassailable reputation for customer service --- to this day, I don't understand how they did it, because I don't see how we did anything different from the other ISPs, other than to tell ourselves we had awesome customer service. But our ISP kicked ass up and down the block based almost entirely on that reputation. I'd love to get some of that mojo at Matasano.)
Amen brother! A happy customer is a great source of revenue over time even thoguh you may take a hit from time to time. How big a hti you take depends on how good you are at what you do, and how good the client is (as far as helping you draft good specs for them).
Maybe the trick is, pick good clients.
(The startup was an ISP, in 1996. Even in 1996, an indie ISP was hard to differentiate from the majors and incumbents. Mike and Tracy, the guys who ran the company, managed to build an unassailable reputation for customer service --- to this day, I don't understand how they did it, because I don't see how we did anything different from the other ISPs, other than to tell ourselves we had awesome customer service. But our ISP kicked ass up and down the block based almost entirely on that reputation. I'd love to get some of that mojo at Matasano.)