Today I came across 2 kinds of
Entrepreneurial ‘Items’ if I may call them, only because they behaved like
typical items.
Here they are:
First one will take up the job
you give to him in a hurry showing that he is very busy. He will even give you
an approximate quote and ask for advance. You give advance and take a date from
this ‘item’ to come back to check on the status of your job.
On the day of meeting you call his
mobile to reconfirm that you will be visiting his works; this ‘item’ will pick
up the phone and when you say who you are, the phone will automatically
disconnect and then when you redial, the mobile will be switched off. You try again after couple of hours and one of
his sidekicks will pick up the mobile phone and give you some BS excuse. Your
day is gone.
Next day you try again and you
get him on his mobile, finally. He gives you some lame excuse and asks you to
come on a new day and time.
On that decided day and time you
arrive at his works. Looking at you he immediately will say, ‘I have given your
work and half of it is done…I deliberately did not complete it because the
budget is increasing.’ You argue that he had already given the budget and he
will again make excuses that he had given you an approximate budge. He will start
calculating the budget in front of you again and give you an increased estimate
that is almost double the quote he gave you earlier. At that moment the
realization will hit you that this ‘item’ was lying to you and your work has
not yet started. When you confront him with this he will say, ‘…I am not
forcing you to get your job done with me…you can go elsewhere…’
Don’t think twice! It is better
to cancel the order and take back your advance money.
Lesson to be learned:
Never work with a person who is
whole and sole of his company; i.e. a proprietary firm. Even if you have to
give order to such a kind of firm ensure that they have at least a minimum team
to handle the works. If the proprietor is the only person who handle all the
departments run away from there. Even if he is cheap, for you he can be a pain
in wrong places that is more expensive than the money you will pay him.
Now let me move on to the second entrepreneurial
‘item’.
Second ‘item’ will appear very
sincere to you and talk to you very politely. You might think you have got the
Right Vendor finally. But the shock is yet to come. This ‘item’ is not capable
of doing your job but she cannot say it upfront on your face.
You ask why?
Nobody who is sitting to do a job
in the market will say that they cannot do that job. They think it will hurt
their reputation; even though they will not be having anything by the name of
reputation in their lives.
So how do I know that these kinds
of ‘items’ cannot deliver?
Simple! With what these kinds of ‘items’
do in such a situation, one can easily tell.
They will make you jump from your
seat by quoting a big price. How big is big? Almost 7 to 10 times the market
price!
When you ask how come she is charging
so much? She will start giving all those useless excuses about being quality conscious
and other BS. For the first time you will look at her office which is the size
of a rat hole and wonder if she is charging so much money then how come the office
is no bigger than a matchbox?
This is the standard style of
these kinds of ‘items’ who cannot do what they claim to do.
Lesson to be learned:
Even if you can afford to pay the
high price never give them your business. They will screw your job royally.
In both cases always look for the
setup that the proprietor has created and the kind of people working in that
setup. Just talk to the employees and you will instantly come to know whether
they are sincerely working or just passing the day.
In conclusion: Any business owner who charges less or
charges more will not necessarily give you the best job that you desire. Never
trust them unless and until you have tested them. This is what you have to
learn and develop inside you! Learning to read people who are sitting in the
market to take away your money without providing any value is the best
education you can give yourself.
Just one more thing: This kind of daily adventure is what makes meeting different people interesting and makes life worth living! You come back home wiser in the evening.
Cheers!
Rakesh Prasad
