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If you’re interested in becoming a general contractor, or any kind of contractor for that matter, you need to prepare yourself for the occasional customer who expects you to work for free. No, I’m not kidding. Let me give you an example.
Recently, a local homeowner contacted me to ask for a written estimate for work at his home. I, of course, said that I would and then asked if there were any other related services he needed from us so that I could price those as well while I was at the home. The homeowner declined.
So, I gave the estimate. That evening the homeowner contacted me to say that he was very interested, but added the caveat that if he “gave me the job” he’d expect me to perform some other tasks for free that had not been mentioned previously. He then topped it off with my favorite line: “If you do a good job word will spread”.
Needless to say, I was a little peeved, as I always am when people expect something for nothing. It was bad enough that he withheld this information from me during our first series of conversations, but by doing so he also deprived me of the opportunity to even investigate the other issues while I was on his property. He essentially was giving me the choice of either saying I would perform free work on something that I had not even physically examined or saying that I would not perform the work for free. I chose the latter.
As expected, he wasn’t thrilled with my response and I didn’t get the job. Good riddance. Dealing with difficult people is not a hobby I particularly enjoy, and in my experience the customers that act weird in the beginning tend to act weird for the duration, and are more likely to make petty complaints, ask for even more freebies later on, and take so long to pay that I end up having to send out a demand for payment letter. Those kinds of people lose me money, and I can’t have that. My attitude is, if you want to wheel and deal, go to a car dealership. Don’t expect a small business owner to make all sorts of concessions on labor and price, especially the specialty contractors who do small-revenue jobs. I have bills, too, and my company is not a charitable organization. If a homeowner is going to try to bargain with a contractor, they should at least let him/her know up front all the services that need to be performed, and then bargain on price after the estimate has been given. Otherwise it’s just a waste of everybody’s time.
I know, I know. Everybody likes a deal and I’m being too harsh. Maybe, but the real point of this story is that you, as the contractor that wants to grow your business, must accept the fact that with every concession you make and with every free service performed you are just delaying your ultimate success. You’re allowing yourself to be held back. Once your business is established you have to stick to your guns when it comes to price or people will take advantage of you. Most of these customers are not business owners and don’t recognize the multitude of costs that we face, so while they might be thinking you have room to budge, you should know better. You should know when to walk away from a losing proposition. In the meantime, double your efforts to target wealthy, time-challenged homeowners who appreciate quality and who recognize that it comes with a price tag.
My name is Jeff and I created this blog in 2007 to help and inspire contractors and home service providers. It’s come a long way since then.