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Home Business and Self-Employment
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My Favorite Client .
. . NOT! We've all had them -- the client from you-know-where. Tad (not his real name) was the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet. He was humble, funny and more than willing to let me call the shots. Exactly what I wanted in a client! I outdid myself on a quote (at no charge to him, mistake number one) and won his trust. I remember he said: "You were priced higher than the others and had the least amount of experience, but I liked your style." And this kind of statement is okay. While price IS a big consideration, personality and confidence is sometimes worth the extra amount. But . . . experience? You can't put a price on experience. You just can't. This part is just my intuition and doesn't necessarily mean a client is wrong for choosing you for style over longevity. I just hope it would trigger a small cautionary warning for you. Don't get snowed by flattery like I did. So what did I do? I proved I had the experience. At no charge to him. Mistake number two. In hindsight and in this situation, what that line of his meant was: "A new business. She's still learning the ropes. Maybe I can capitalize on that." Capitalize on it he did. I made it easy for him by not educating myself or having enough confidence to realize at the time that MY time was worth money, no matter how new I was. And you won't realize this until you spend time doing your research. Take it from me. I did hours and hours of work for Tad without payment. Yep. I was positive that this client would turn into a big account. His words, his smile, my inexperience . . . landed me right on my behind. It wasn't until months later that I finally got paid in full for a job that had become less than nothing to me. If I could do it all over again, what would I do?
I went round and round with this client and his "assistant," and I can honestly say that it was the worst few months of my life. I wanted to believe him so badly (and he had a good idea, really, he just didn't have the money to produce it) that it clouded my judgment, something that would have never happened had I taken the time to research my business and prepare a business marketing plan. On a positive note, we don't get good without experiencing a couple of lemons now and then. The lessons I learned from this client were invaluable, but this is one lemon that'll never be put into my lemonade. I think I'd be able to spot that color of yellow a mile away. So what about you? What did, or are, you learning from dealing with a client that will help you identify, deal with, or avoid another such client in the future? If hindsight is 20/20, what would you do now that you didn't do then? A lemonade drinker, Andrea King is the owner of Aardvark Creations <www.aardvarkcreations.com>, which offers writing, editing, desktop publishing and graphic design. She is editor of a book review column for an online ezine (The Pen Is Mightier), and also runs an online writer's critique group. Contact her at andreakingme@aol.com. |
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Disclaimer
The information compiled on this site is Copyright 1999-2012 by Attard Communications, Inc. and by the individual authors. |
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