I’ll Run My Business & You Run Yours
December 15, 2009 • Client-Designer Relationships
If there’s anything that bugs me, it’s someone telling me how to run my business. It’s one thing to make a suggestion or a request, but to flat out tell me how to run my business is a sure way to get me to not want to have anything to do with you. I’ve been doing this since 1996 and I do just fine doing things my own way. I’ve had lots of practice in learning what works for me and what doesn’t. This isn’t to say that I can’t improve or make changes and honestly speaking, when I find something that isn’t working anymore or I hear of a new idea that I think will work for me, I’m flexible enough to make changes or give something new a fair shake. My business has to work as smoothly as I can make it work for me.
I would never think of telling a client how to run their business. To me that’s total and utter disrespect and it’s none of my business anyway. Who the heck am I to tell a client that they need to do this or that? If what they want me to do for their web site has known negative consequences, I’ll politely and tactfully let them know and then it’s up to them what they want to do. They may or may not change their minds, and that’s ok. I’ve done my job and given them the pro’s and cons and then the ball’s in their court. I’m certainly not going to jump in with things like “you should do it this way” type statements. Now how long do you think a client would put up with that before they fired me? NOT LONG that’s for sure!
I very recently had a potential client contact me to do something for them regarding a web site. What they wanted me to do involved some research in order to do a good job, which depending on the site, can take some time. When I told them I’d be happy to but I couldn’t get them what they wanted for a week or two they immediately made the decision to go elsewhere. I don’t think they even took one minute to think about it, they couldn’t have because they responded so quickly and when I asked, he wouldn’t even give me the courtesy of telling me what the big rush was all about. Perhaps he felt that was none of my business, but I would have more appreciated an “I prefer not to answer that.” than to have the question totally ignored. I don’t like being ignored. It wasn’t a matter of how long it was going to take me to do it once I got to it, it was a matter of finding the time to do it. I’ve done this same type of work for umpteen potential clients over the years and not a single one of them has ever had a problem waiting a week or two. As of this writing, that’s over 13 years without a single complaint. In fact, most of the comments I get go something like this … “I’m not in a big hurry” or “that’s absolutely ok with me.” I think that’s a pretty darn good record and it’s one I’m very proud of.
It doesn’t always take a week or two to fit things into my schedule, but he happened to catch me at a really busy time with lots of work already scheduled. I don’t think he’d appreciate me dropping his project to do someone else’s work so why he felt it was ok to have me do that to my paying clients in favor of him, I really have no idea. What comes to mind is that he probably has a very big ego and isn’t used to having people tell him “sure no problem but it’s going to take me a little while to get to it.” The time frame I gave him was not out of line for what he wanted me to do, either.
Whatever happened to being reasonable? I’ve got a husband who’s got zip-zero-zilch for patience which is very wearing on a person to deal with. I have to take orders at work every day. I’m most certainly not going to invite that kind of an attitude into my own working relationship with a client. Every single one of my clients have their own lives and their own businesses to run and they’re very understanding that they’re not the only client I have. They know the work will get done in a reasonable time frame and they respect me and my business.
I explained to this person the reason why it would take a week or two. It wasn’t a matter of the time to do it, but a matter of scheduling it into my work load. I put in about 60 hours a week on web design, I have a full-time job, seven grandkids I like to spend time with whenever I can and two furkids that need daily attention. I am always willing to do the kind of work this guy was asking me to do, I just wasn’t able to (nor was I about to) say “how high?” when he said “jump!” I was literally flabbergasted when he flat out told me it should only take me X number of hours to do this and that they weren’t willing to be a little bit patient. My gut was screaming … Red flag! Red flag!
After we conversed back and forth on this a little bit, I saw the writing on the wall as to what kind of a client he would be … I thanked him for his request, wished him well, and that was that. Did I potentially throw some money away? Yes. Am I upset about that? Absolutely NOT! Money is not the be all to end all. I learned a very long time ago that my sanity is more important than the money people pay me. I have my limits and like most everyone else, I do stretch them now and then. But when someone rudely crosses that line and tells me I should be able to do “this” in “this” amount of time as this fellow did (and that’s pretty much his exact words) … I’m done and I walk a way giggling, grateful to not have walked into a working relationship that I could see would frustrate me no end. It didn’t take me long to realize that a working relationship with this guy would have been a nightmare waiting to happen.
Now, if the same were true in reverse and I approached you this way, would you not be offended? Would you want to work with someone with this kind of an attitude? The working relationship between you and your web designer needs to be comfortable for both of you. I remember what I was like when I first started my web design business. I was so desperate for clients and to make a good name for myself that I took on any job (any personality, too!) and got paid peanuts for all my hours of work. It’s been over 13 years and I still have some of those same wonderful clients. We’ve grown our businesses together through the years which tells me I’m doing things right. We learn from one another but that’s not because I tell them how to run their business nor do they tell me how to run mine. I wouldn’t know the first thing about running their businesses and I don’t want to know either. I have my hands full with my own and that’s the way I like it and so apparently do my happy clients.
