There's no right or wrong answer here. It's merely opinions and every opinion here should be taken with a grain of salt.

My opinion here is that it all depends on the web-firm and the maturity of the firm. Most start-ups will accept everyone, and all clients that come their way and can pay their fees. That will A.) get their business out of debt. and B.) typically involve really long hours to get stable clients. Then it moves into another phase which I call the "mature" phase. Where they have a lot of clients that are able to provide continuous work thus making the company grow. When they hit that stage then most companies will be a little more pickier on who they choose. The funny part is that if you are really good at what you do people will come to you and will care .. but not what your fees are.

Here's a real world example:
You know there's this college in the US named Harvard. Do they accept all who come? No, yet they still get tons and tons of applications to attend their school. Why? There's a bit of factors but mainly because they are good at what they do and their name in synonymous with excellence. Companies operate in a similar fashion. If you are good at what you do you don't have to accept everyone.

Personally speaking here's how I ran my company which grew to 14 employees before I turned 18. We accepted just about any client that came our way, I kept my overhead (the costs associated to creating the item bought (ex: Staff, Utilities, Insurance, Server space, ect)) extremely low so I could bid low and win it. I had some very talented designers and coders that I worked with and we were good at what we did. Within a year we were profiting ((gross $ in - overhead) > 0). My company failed because we all started to go to college and didn't have time to really work anymore.

So to answer your question you could run in a USP format, which is good for marketing. However, it will all come down to one thing. How good are you, and what previous experience do you have?

Best of luck to you,
Chad

Chad, you're a star! I have been thinking along the same lines but started to doubt myself a little. I guess my experience is limited but exponential, since completing uni two and a half years ago I have learned so much and feel quite confident that I can offer a great service.

I know my limitations and am working to overcome them one week at a time.

Thanks again for your help . . . have a great day.

There's also something to be said about tailoring yourself to one or a few verticals (niches) to build up a portfolio of outstanding work within them.

Each portfolio item you win on can only increase your chances of a win within that vertical in the future, even if you have a higher bid than others (who may not have such an impressive portfolio for that industry).

Just an opinion. This method is harder when you're starting from scratch.

Kappi, it's all about timing. If you increase your prices too quickly then you'll lose the best of your customers. Since they'll see it for what it is .. you want to make more money.

I have a site (you'll find it in my profile) that I started which allows people to connect to multiple API's using one interface. With that I noticed the opposite. The price was too high initially, so I lowered it and now more people are signing up for paid accounts.

The main thing is just get experience and play it by ear. You'll learn from feedback from your clients what you need to do and where you should go with your company. Using Concrete is a great start.

Thanks again guys, it's nice when others reply.