Actual user/potential client question:
"Why is it going to cost so much and take so long? I mean, look at Microsoft Word. That does a lot more than what we are talking about and I can get that for 50 or 60 dollars."
Simple economics. Microsoft developed Word once and will sell a bazillion copies which will allow Microsoft to recover development costs after xx numbers of copies are sold. A custom system will be developed once and will only sell one copy therefore all development costs must be recouped off of that one copy.
(just in case you wanted to know
)