Why 5 Working Days Means 5 Working Days…
Ok, ladies and gentlemen, we’re all business people here. And as a business person, there is nothing I hate more than independent contractors who simply cannot stick to their own deadlines.
I won’t be dropping any names here - at least, not for a few days - but last Thursday, at exactly 17:23 my time, I retained the service of a graphics designer for my next project. He contacted me prompty, acknowledged the receipt of the project and asked for 4-5 working days to finish the design.
No problem - 4-5 days for a minisite is somewhat on the longer end, but I can live with that.
You can probably anticipate where this post is headed…
As I’m typing this, it is now Friday, 0:19 AM my time (in other words, just past midnight). I haven’t heard from this designer, in spite of the two e-mails I sent him.
I have the book for this project ready and written - the only thing that’s missing is the graphics. By the look of things, I’ll be lucky to get it done this Friday (which already exceeds the self-imposed 5 working days deadline) - and even then, I won’t be able to sell it until Monday, because I won’t be getting maximum exposure on SitePoint during the weekend.
Bottom line is, this delay is costing me money (that’s the reason why you haven’t seen a single auction from me this week). If the designer actually knew what he was doing, the site would’ve been ready and sold, and I would’ve been reinvesting the money into my next project.
As it is, I am stuck here waiting on him like an idiot to, frankly, pull his finger out and finish the job that I’m paying him to do.
No, I don’t care what happened to him - if he needed extra time, he could’ve e-mailed me. But ignoring my e-mails as well as the deadline he himself specified is just bad practice - especially when it concerns a project that he’s being paid to do.
Bottom line is, you agree to a deadline, you stick to it no matter what - or you don’t get repeat business from me.
Harsh? Yes - but I never said that making money is easy or not stressful.
Christmas is over, and business is business.
