When you’re in business, it is inevitable that what you do involves other people. The way I run my businesses, I do a lot of collaborational arrangements on a per project basis with subcontractors like web designers, graphic designers, programmers, video editors, etc. This means I spend a lot of time in the world of estimates, bids, trades and RFPs (requests for proposals). This also means my two or three business pet peeves get triggered fairly often.
Peeve 1) Learn to Estimate
I can not tell you how annoying it is to get a proposal from someone where it is painfully obvious they have underestimated their time, resources, and overall budget. If the error is egregious, I may send a note suggesting politely that they take a second look at the estimate and resubmit, just to be nice, especially if I know the person is just starting out in freelancing and may be learning. If the problem continues, or comes from a company who should have the experience to know better? Chances are I’m going to take a teach by experience approach, taking the bid and saving my client money while letting the freelancer or company experience the time sink and cost overflow that comes from working a project that was not bid correctly. This usually nets a correct bid on future projects but means the freelancer lost money and time for their carelessness. A painful way to learn. Know what you are worth. Then bid what you are worth. I’d rather pay you more and get good quality than work with an unhappy, underpaid contractor.
Peeve 2) Unsolicited Change Orders and Cost Changes
Related to Peeve 1, if you under bid and the bid was accepted, you don’t get to try and re invoice halfway through at the price you should have bid the job in the first place. If the client wants to increase the scope, we will initiate that discussion and negotiate an increase and change order with the winning bidder; otherwise, the freelancer or company should stick with what was bid and learn from the mistake for future bids.
Peeve 3) Trade Weaseling
I don’t know what else to call this one. On rare occasion I’ll negotiate an in-kind trade with someone. I don’t do this often, because in kind trades don’t pay the bills, but they have other benefits that occasionally make them worthwhile. If I negotiate a trade for my services anticipating a certain project on the freelancer or company’s end and the project falls through for them, I will honor the trade on another of their clients, present or future. However, selling someone else isn’t my responsibility in this case. Don’t come back to me wanting money for whatever the trade was for or for me to devote hours selling what services others are offering because said freelancer or company couldn’t close a deal. They have my agreement to give them thousands of dollars of work in writing, good until the debt is settled, and the freelancer or company are still obligated to hold up their end of the trade. Ditto trades where folks realize they over committed – honor the trade and learn from the time discrepancy.
I imagine my Peeve # 3 will get the most comments, but I’m interested to know: what are YOUR business peeves?
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