It’s been a rough week—definitely one to learn and grow on.  The longer I do this running a business thing the more I’m starting to trust some gut feelings that I get when negotiating work, and inevitably turning some projects down.

I wanted to try and define just what generates those gut feelings. And yes, this is a bit of a rant - but if I don’t blog it I’ll be thinking about it all weekend, so bear with me.

So here are a few things that throw red flags for me during new project discussions:

1. Too much talk.
I get nervous when potential clients talk too much.  Not that I want to dominate the conversation, but when I can hardly get a word in edgewise I begin to think that this person is not listening well, which means assumptions and misunderstandings will happen.

2. Immediate rate negotiation.
I know—price negotiation is part and parcel of the business world.  And yes, I’ve negotiated hourly rates and project prices in the past and expect to do so in the future.  But when my rate gets challenged very early on in project negotiations, before the project is completely defined, before my role is completely defined, and before any kind of rapport is established,  it makes me wonder if the value and skill I can bring to a project are really being considered a commodity.

3. Hyping of future work or future referrals.
This seems to come right after #2. When potential clients keep talking about future referrals or future work it makes me wonder if what I’m really hearing is that I need to do this one for free or at drastically reduced prices in order to earn that future work. 

Trouble is when I have taken on a project with this understanding, none of that future work has ever come in.  And if it did - I’m not sure I’d be able to get back to billing at my normal rate because a trend has now been established.

4. Too many compliments, too soon.
I’ve learned that people who are the quickest to compliment can also be the quickest to insult.  This is a fuzzy one - a certain number of compliments is OK, but there’s a point at which each additional compliment devalues them all, and I start to wonder how genuine any of them were in the first place.

5. Hyping the mission/goals/benefits of the organization.
I see this more often with non-profits - I sometimes feel like the expectation is that if they can “sell” me on the mission, goals, or benefits of the organization the site is for that I’ll reduce my rates or do the site “at cost”, whatever that means.

I’m all for bettering the world with great websites for churches and other non-profits, but I also need to feed my family and pay my mortgage like everyone else.  I’ve posted my position on this one before, and I still maintain that it’s in the organization’s best interest to pay a competitive rate for a great website.

6. Fuzzy project definition.
I can only quote a project to the level of detail that it’s been specified with.  And you can bet that the absence of detail in a spec is going to mean higher estimates in the quote. 

When I’m expected to provide a richly detailed quote on a project that has nothing but a quick email in the way of specification or documentation I get nervous as my experience has been that “scope creep” happens with great ease, while “cost creep” gets the phone calls and emails flying.  Put a bit of time into some sitemaps, wireframes, scribbles on napkins, something to help define that idea in your head.

So there you have it - my “Friday afternoon, must be 5:00 somewhere, gonna go watch a movie” post for today.

I feel better.