why can't I do both?

if nobody else has the same problem I'm just gonna hack together some scripts, call it a day, and charge them like a contractor.

if the problem is more generalizable then it's worth hunkering down and building something more robust, and charging them like a vendor.

at any rate, part of their problem is people are leaving before they get a chance to talk, and not enough people are talking to them. bit of a catch-22 for them. why not see if the well runs deep?