I’m generally an advocate for never leaving money on the table if you can. So I’ve spent a lot of projects negotiating better deals, better payouts, just whatever it took to get the sale. But a lot of times I would find myself overworked and underpaid in the end and wonder was it really worth it?
There used to be a time in my business where things were super slow, and I would jump on some extremely low paying jobs. And although it would be a nice band-aid, the work would never stop the bleeding.
Things of course changed as the business grew and I got clear about my business goals, boundaries, and practices. And if I had not been prepared for the story I’m about to tell, I could have seen me making similar choices again that really don’t enhance the overall scope of my business. Because generally people who don’t want to pay you your price, won’t be the ones to help your business grow In my opinion..
I had a potential client call me the other day to discuss contracting us to do some website video work for a network of businesses she wants to market to. She basically wants to sell them on the service, then have us do the work. Fairly straight-forward standard contracting fare. But once she asked what the price would be, she went on to complaining that her clients wouldn’t pay that much.
So I asked her if she had a budget she was trying to stay around and she told me. Then I said for around that budget we could not provide the level of work she was requesting and would have to scale back on a few things. She seemed frustrated and then made the most disturbing comment.
“I mean I know I paid that much for my own video, but these people don’t want to pay that much”.
I then became clear it was not an issue of value to dollar, it was her way of hoping to take something of value and resell it for cheaper. And I had to retract myself from the conversation. She wasn’t too happy about me not coming down (significantly) in price. As a matter of fact, it was something like $500 for $5000 worth of work (surely you jest).
When I tried to talk to her about maybe streamlining the process a bit to create something in her budget, she wasn’t really attentive to that, and actually missed a schedule conference call we were to have to discuss ideas. When she didn’t show up on the call, or follow up to apologize for missing the call, even weeks after the fact, I knew then to put a nail in the coffin of this business relationship. Because now it was all out of the boundaries of how I do business.
Even when business isn’t going well, there are some deals where leaving money on the table is the best thing for the business. We’ve been blessed enough to be doing extremely well in this economy, so we continue to pick and choose the best practices for our growth, but even if we weren’t doing well, I would have still turned this down. Realizing your value and what you can and cannot do for money, especially if the price isn’t right, will save you a lot of headaches in the long run.
