Stralyamate and $

Got a pretty disturbing IM earlier yesterday, which will probably explain why some of us keep such a watchful eye over the economic events:

“side note most of your AUS clients are now getting screwed hard by the AU/US Dollar changes.. we lost 35% in the last 3 weeks”

Ouch. Now, if you’re only charging 30% markup on ExchangeDefender you’re better off just burning money. If you are letting go of it for less than $4/month you’re really missing out on the point of the product – people pay hundreds of dollars for just Exchange backup features in their backup software – to get the client back in business a few hours or days later – you mean to tell me you can’t show the value in having their exact Exchange 2007 replica on a 10 second notice (or however long it takes you to open Internet Explorer and type in https://livearchive.exchangedefender.com)

That’s besides the point though, if you are doing business with any foreign entity you are at the mercy of exchange rate fluctuations which means your profitability margin is tied to the economic prosperity (or perception thereof) of another country – not to the value add that you provide.

Food for thought people. The world may be flat in terms of communications and idea exchange, but it ain’t flat when it comes to money. How do you deal with the fluctuations in pricing that impact your profitability margin by an unpredictable amount each month? This isn’t just a pricing change that you can announce, adjust and move on…

If you’ve got an idea people are listening…. 🙂