Business woes
I have to wonder why I insist on doing most everything the hard way.
When I say "the hard way", what I'm really saying is that I tend to do a lot of learning by trial and error. There simply isn't time to learn everything by means of trial and error. Even if one were to take a life lesson from every one of those errors and not repeat his mistakes, it's still far more efficient to learn from the mistakes others have made so that one doesn't have to waste his time making them all over again.
Hence why I should have gone to business school. I certainly was smart enough for it -- but NO! I had to be an actor. An artist. A psychologist. When I set up my own business, I had to learn everything from the process of failing about a thousand times, with only the framework I inherited from overhearing my dad's conversations about his businesses to guide me. I've had an idea of how to do things... just not the tools to streamline the process so that every transaction and interaction doesn't whip up a new round of "What should be done in this situation?"
So, lesson learned this week: 1) Don't leave anything up in the air when it comes to your business contracts. Set the terms from the beginning. Write them down; get the contract signed, with a specific list of what is promised, and by when, so that both parties are appropriately satisfied for their time and money. Word of mouth doesn't cut it. While shuffling the paperwork might be a little too formal for some freelancers' tastes (including mine), it's a necessary action to take if you want business to go smoothly.
I wouldn't have the problems I'm encountering now (again) if I had better sense in these matters. Live and learn. Now if I can just find a way to learn faster...
Posted by Matt at September 19, 2003 1:46 PM
