A little business annoyance

I’m sure I’ve written about this before – maybe here, maybe in an old blog, but it happened again today, so I need to mention it (and I will keep mentioning it until i change the world!) Apologoes in advance – this is a little “rantish”.

I hate it being implied that what I do is easy.

There are two ways this happens. One way is a client will say something like “oh, this should be an easy job for you” or “I’ve got an easy one for you“.

This may seem innocent, but I find it a little annoying. How do they know it’s an easy job? Because it almost always isn’t. Believe me, writing to get someone to click (or react) is hard. Sometimes, I’ve spent half a day on one page. Usually when someone says “this’ll be easy for you”, it’s a setup for “I’m not going to pay a lot for this”.

So please, do me and every other professional you deal with a favor – don’t tell them their job should be “easy”. Let them decide what’s easy, and what isn’t.

The other one that people sometimes use that somewhat discounts what I do is the old “well, I could write this myself, but I don’t have the time”.  I hear that one every so often.

Ummm, no Captain Marvelous, you probably couldn’t write this. That’s why you’re coming to me.  There’s no shame there – this is what I do.

You can say about your lawn guy “I’d cut it myself, but…” and I’ll believe you. But please, there’s no need to say to me “you know, I’m hiring you simply because I have no time“.  

I hire web designers because I can’t make websites. I have Jen do any graphic work for me because I suck at it. I hire a plumber because I have a 50% “it holds” ratio when I solder pipe (and you don’t find out if it holds until you turn on the water… which sucks when you’ve soldered 5 connections.) I don’t tell any of these people that what I need done is “easy”. And I certainly don’t say “I could do it myself, but…”

Anyway, that’s my little rant for today. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about “what part of 14 items or less don’t you understand?”  🙂