A couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail from HG, a freelancer I hired to write an e-book for my info-marketing business.
HG complained, “Bob, this project has just taken a lot more time and energy than expected. I need to move onto other things. I just want to finish and get paid at this time.”
I must tell you that this is a piss-poor attitude and I would hesitate to use HG for another project.
Here’s my reply to HG: “As I said in a recent talk at the AWAI Boot Camp, you must always put the client first. You always do the best job you can no matter what you are getting paid.
“I am not happy to hear you just want to finish and be done with it. If you want to get paid, I expect your entire manuscript to be excellent, as was the first chapter of your first draft.”
Here’s the thing I have discovered in 35 years of freelancing…
You rarely feel that the fee you are getting is perfect for the amount of work and degree of difficulty in any assignment.
Either you are working too hard for too little money, or the project is easier than you expected and you are being paid perhaps too well.
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My experience is that it all balances out, and my rule is: it doesn’t matter.
Whichever the case, I always do the very best job I can on every assignment, no matter how much or how little I am getting paid.
And I would never tell a client “I have to move on.” You move on when you have completed the project to the customer’s satisfaction. Not when you are tired of it or have other things to do.
Can you imagine hiring a contractor for an agreed-upon fee to remodel your kitchen, and when you are not satisfied, having him tell you he incorrectly estimated the time and labor…and therefore will not finish the job to your satisfaction because he has to “move on”?
The only way to succeed in business is to put the client first.
In fact, the real secret to outrageous business success is not to give the client his money’s worth…but to give him more than his money’s worth, more than he has any right to expect.
Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.