The best advice was something we learned, then said to ourselves: no matter how friendly the client appears to be, create a parallel structure that ties progress of the job to progress of the payments. This way the client knows from the outset at which stages payments are expected. We learned this from several clients who accepted the low, low prices we quoted, but then after all work was done and several thousand were owed, said, "let's negotiate the price now." We had zero leverage. NEVER have zero leverage.
On June 15, 2017 at 11:31, Richie Rich said...
Also: Some of the best projects I have been involved in are the ones I turned down. Do not be afraid to walk away from a potential job if you get a hinky feeling about a potential client. I have had a few of these that I have heard through the grapevine went horribly sideways for the people that took them on.
This may be the most important piece of advice here. We all have some sense of how honest people are, and we have to be unexcited enough by the cool stuff we're going to do that we hear our own better selves warning us. (You Christians out there, this is the 'still, small voice' that's spoken of.)
On June 15, 2017 at 12:04, Fins said...
Did you listen at first?
Ali had the wonderful experience of fighting that advice, then doing it, then being humble enough to learn to listen to advice and do what's recommended. AND he insisted on knowing why. That's a BIG part of learning!
Plus, I'll bet nobody made such good fun of anybody's name here as the member who went by "Ali Has a Hemi."
