Financial and Mortgage Paradise

What do you deduce about two products of similar type, one of which costs $2,000 and the other $200? The more expensive is probably better made and so of higher quality. It may have a cachet or brand value to which potential buyers aspire. There is nothing wrong with it being more expensive, assuming that there are people who appreciate those qualities and are prepared to pay for it. No matter how disparaging one chooses to be about products and services that are ‘expensive’, one is eventually forced to admit that, one way or another, there must be a market for them otherwise they would not remain in their market.

In which case, what would you deduce about two people, one of whom commands a fee of $2,000 a day, and the other $200? The more expensive is likely to be more experienced and therefore of higher quality. This is self-fulfilling, because if they are not, then in a fairly short space of time they will not generate any repeat business, and will fail as a business reasonably quickly.

It may be something of a rhetorical question, but which of these two people would you rather be? Obviously it is a hypothetical example and the gap between the two figures doesn’t really matter, but the principle probably does. Far too many people who work on their own undercharge for their services, and it is often a mystery why. Nervousness certainly plays a part. Lack of confidence contributes too. And many will claim that if they put their prices up, they will either lose or fail to gain work. But if you think it through carefully, you will pretty much always look enviously upon someone who is successful in a particular field and come to the following conclusion:

If they cost a lot, then they must be good.

This is, of course, the reaction that you should aspire to invoke m your customers and competitors. Clearly there has to be an appropriate balance between price and delivery but, in the main, you should always place the maximum possible value on what you have to offer. If you are uncertain about what that value is, you need to test your pricing first. One of the lovely things about being self-employed is that you can effectively reinvent yourself and what you offer every day. If yesterday’s formula didn’t work, try another today. Now consider putting your prices up, and be prepared to turn work down if customers want it too cheap. Your central maxim should be:

Charge a premium price and do a great job.

People often feel that if they say no, then that’s the end of it, and that the person asking the question will end up being annoyed. This doesn’t have to be the case. Let’s have a look at some of the circumstances in which you might not be able to agree to a customer request:

- you haven’t got the time

- the price isn’t right

- the type of work isn’t quite what you like

- you have done so much of the same work recently that you would rather do something else

- you did not enjoy working with them before and would rather not again.

The precise reasons don’t really matter. The point is that you need to explain your position in a way that leaves the door open for further business in due course should things change. Why is that? Because at some point in the future:

- you may well have the time

- the price might well be right

- the nature of the request from that person may be different

- you may not have done that type of work for a while

- your opinion of the customer may have changed. Everything is constantly changing, and it changes faster when you work on your own than it does in a company. So stay open-minded and let them down politely and gently.

Here are some civilized ways of declining work and some possible reactions.

I’m really sorry, I am fully booked at the moment.

Can the deadline be moved back at all? A lot of customers respect the fact that you are busy. It proves that you are successful and in demand, and it reflects and confirms the value of your premium pricing. Anyway, time might not be their main consideration. There will be those that get the hump, but they often come back at a later date, particularly if they have a less than satisfactory experience elsewhere (which they often do, particularly if they go for a ‘quick fix’ alternative).

I’m really sorry, I have just completed a massive programme of exactly that sort of work, and I have decided to take a breather from it before taking on any more.

Customers always want people to be fresh and keen on their subject matter, so your reaction is honest and reasonable. It might not suit their immediate needs, but it is representative of a respectful attitude. They might not like it, but then again they may come back to you later with requests for different types of work that you would enjoy more.

I’m really sorry, I am fully booked at the moment. May I refer you to someone else who does the same sort of work, who may be able to do it for you? I know them well and think they would offer a suitable alternative.

This is a very constructive response, and they will probably thank you for it because it is a very professional thing to do. It proves that you are ‘big’ enough to pass work on. It also shows that you have a good working knowledge of your market to go with your magnanimous attitude. The contact you refer them to will certainly thank you too. If you are incredibly unlucky, they will commission your contact to do the work, prefer them to you, and give them all their future work. So you will have lost a customer. But that’s pretty unlikely. Now read on.

Life’s a mess. Make it up as you go along! One of the joys of running your own business is that you can change the rules any time you like – several times a day if you are feeling particularly mischievous. There’s nothing more boring than someone who repeats the company mantra in a soulless manner, so go with the flow a little. If you spot an opportunity, try out a sales angle. If you have a random thought, say it. If you want to discuss an idea without necessarily proposing it, then do so. It’s vibrant and fun.

You’ve all seen the type of thing:

‘Relentlessly successful, moved from A to B to C, married with two children, enjoys theatre and music’

That’s the gist of the average CV. What can we deduce about this individual? Are they extremely reliable or just really boring? The best that we can guess is that they are a fairly steady individual. Let’s compare them with the next one:

‘Gained experience doing X, transferred skills to different industry Y, broke away and set up on own doing Z, plays in a rock band, flies birds of prey at the weekends, amateur artist and occasional cartoonist.’

Who would you prefer to have a drink with? Who would you rather do business with?

You get the idea. If you introduce some humanity into your business life, interesting things start to happen. First, you get to know your customers so much better, not because you are asking inane questions such as ‘Did you have a good weekend?’ but because you really get to know what they are up to, and in most cases people do some very interesting and enterprising things that they never mention unless you ask. Second, if you work in the type of business where it is appropriate to overlap your work and social life, the whole thing becomes a pleasure instead of a chore. Third, smart customers deduce very quickly that if you are enterprising in your spare time, you probably are in your working time as well. Finally, mentioning your hobbies and outside interests can give you that extra element of pride in your achievements that is crucial to anyone who works on their own. There’s nothing wrong with drawing satisfaction from’ your hobbies as well as your work and transferring that confidence between the two whenever you need it.

One major point with regard to staying sane and enthusiastic: you can’t do it if you don’t like your working environment. Given that running your own business is a daily process of motivation and reinvention, you cannot hope to achieve this if you don’t like where you work. If you work at home, there are all sorts of things that you can do to get comfortable:

- Some people like to have a clearly differentiated room to work in where they can spread out, have all their stuff, and generally make a mess. Others only need a desk in the corner of the bedroom. Work out your preferred style.

- Decide on the level of tidiness you require about the place and arrange things accordingly.

- If you have a partner or other family members around you at home, talk to them about the bits that matter to you. What is out of bounds? Which things do you use in a working context that are in the house? Are there any aspects of other people’s clutter and behaviour that prevent you from getting things done? If so, have you found a polite way of discussing it? Once you have mentioned it, they can understand better that the home is also a working environment, and perhaps make a few adjustments to help.

Some people simply cannot work at home. Even though they can work effectively on their own, they require the discipline of a separate place of work to get them in the mood. These types should consider:

- Does the place that I work in really reflect my style?

- Is my journey to work sensible or is it just as bad as travelling to a company?

- Do I get to fraternize with like-minded people, or would I be better off somewhere else?

One way or another, you need to be inspired to get your work done: if your environment isn’t right, change it. So there we have it. Take the work seriously, but not yourself. Don’t do the same thing for too long, and take sensible time off, preferably to do something really stimulating. Throw some hobbies into the mix, rather than over-deliver when you aren’t being paid enough to justify it. This all adds up to a decent balance that will make you better at everything you do. Which, of course, will certainly increase your chances of staying sane and appearing, or even truly being, relentlessly enthusiastic.

When you start out working on your own, you may well quite naively assume that the shape of tomorrow will be exactly as it is written in your personal organizer. Nothing could be further from the truth! Just when you have put a suit on, on a day when you think you have three meetings, they may have all been cancelled by 9.30 a.m. If that does happen, it is not acceptable to sit around and do nothing on the grounds that everything has changed. In fact, you should assume every day that everything will change.

Being incapable of adapting rapidly is a big warning sign for anyone who works on their own. Expressing dismay that everything has changed at short notice conveys the impression that it is easy to catch you on the hop and that you are a bit a plodder. Life’s a mess – roll with it and enjoy the ride!

You need Plans B, C and so on that you can engage immediately when all the other activities fall away. The trick to avoid disappointment is to work out that this will happen before it happens. Then when it does, which it undoubtedly will, instead of being aghast at this extraordinary development and going into a flat spin, you simply reach for your Plan B file. Let’s have a look at what a Plan B might be, and relish in the thought that the wonderful thing about Plan B is that Plan B is often more productive than Plan A.

Here are 12 examples of things that anyone can do to generate a Plan B.

1. As a matter of course, you should read all the trade press related to your business, and that which your potential customers read, plus anything else that stimulates you. Collect ideas and articles, and use them to generate initiatives and give you the basis for a speculative phone call or proposal.

2. If an ex-customer or colleague surfaces somewhere in a new job, call them immediately, and keep an eye out for information on the new market that they have entered. This is how you will extend your customer base beyond its current shape.

3. Have good data sources, become familiar with them, and use them to generate ideas. In particular, remember that trends change all the time, so you cannot claim to be on top of developments if you don’t check them regularly.

4. Read more books than your customers. Barely anyone in any industry has ever read what they are supposed to. If you have, you can help by introducing new ideas and by being the authority on a specific subject.

5. Collect interesting quotes that may help to liven up presentations or marketing materials. It is a tricky business looking for inspiration at the precise moment that you need it. The whole thing is much easier if you make a habit of collecting stimulating quotes all the time. Then when you need some inspiration, you can simply reach for your quotes file.

6. Look up a word in the dictionary every day to make yourself more erudite (look that one up if you need to). Obviously this is a matter of personal choice, but we only use a fraction of the words available in our language and it can become very dull. The beauty of working for yourself is that, if you want to look up a word on the spot, then you usually can. People in companies rarely want to admit to a colleague that they don’t know the meaning of a word, let alone that they don’t possess a dictionary. Here’s a fun little exercise to increase your word power. Look up these words and see if your dictionary definitions tally with those given in the list. At least it will force you to buy a dictionary and open it. Few things are more pointless than an unopened dictionary.

7. Improve your grammar and phraseology so that you ca express yourself better than your customers and competitors, obviously without turning into a pompous, condescending fool. In certain businesses, you can even sell this as a skill in its own right because ail companies can improve how they communicate. The overall effect will be to reinforce the fact that you are good at what you do and can express yourself well.

8. Hobbies and projects are good to have at hand, so long as they do not take over your working life. They can provide an excellent counterbalance to work if you have a lot of intensive stuff to do over a sustained period, and customers will find your other talents interesting because they complement their perception that you are an enterprising person with plenty of ideas and energy.

9. More specifically, when you have achieved something extra­curricular, make it part of your CV and sales patter. People are interested, and it adds a human dimension to the person behind the business skills that they are being offered.

10. Constantly rewrite your CV, redefining your skills again and again to reflect what you are best at, and what you enjoy doing most, based on the new work you are doing. Don’t forget that what you are best at and what you enjoy most are often strongly related. This is very much part of the joy of working on your own – you can dictate, within reason, the nature of the work that you choose to do, and mould it as you develop your understanding of yourself.

11. Regularly examine the shape of your business so that you can rattle off the facts to your clients. For example:

- How many clients did you have in year 1/2/3?

- How many jobs did you do in year 1/2/3?

- How much repeat business did you have in year 2?

12. Look at the bottom of your contact list and call everyone below the Pester Line

If after all those suggestions you are still able to claim that you have no idea what to do with your time, you should definitely not be running your own business. And whether you agree with the ideas on how you should behave or not, you should definitely now be able to draw up your own rules of engagement, so that you are never unsure about how to conduct yourself. Once you do, you will have created your own ‘company culture’, and your potential customers will be left in no doubt as to what you stand for.

It is then up to your potential clients to decide whether your style suits them, and if you have conducted yourself well, then it is very likely that it will.