Because of the nature of my business, I sometimes talk to startup entrepreneurs with a dollar and a dream. Which is fine. But sometimes, these dreams seem a little far-fetched to me. Usually when that happens, MLM or Network Marketing is involved.

Let me be plain up front - I am not a fan of MLM. Not at all. I think it’s a sleazy way of doing business, because the basic premise isn’t honest. The focus of the business is not on the products and services, despite what anyone says - the focus is on building a network.

Every now and again, I get asked to write sales copy for network marketers. I’m not one to turn down paying work, so if you want to hire me and take your shot with your MLM company, I’ll be happy to help (although if you ask, I’ll give you my opinion of MLM).  

But, I *do* have to feel good about it. That wasn’t the case today.

Two weeks ago, a woman gave me a deposit of $750 to write a few sales pages. We were going to do a typical site - Home | About | Products | The Opportunity | FAQ | Contact.  

This kind of thing I can get behind - we’ll sell product, we’ll have a page talking about “the opportunity”, etc - it seemed pretty close to a normal business. I was scheduled to start the project this week.

The today, she e-mails me “the rules”, as laid down by the company. One of the products she’s selling is Sprint wireless service… but I’m not allowed to use the name Sprint. She’s also selling something called Clear4G, and I can’t mention that name either.

Huh? How am I supposed to sell a product online when I can’t mention the name? Sorry, no dice - I’m not doing it. I can’t in good conscience say to her “ok, here are your sales pages” when I *know* they aren’t going to sell squat.

So I call her and explain my point - she says “ok, how about just writing a lead capture page for the opportunity?”. We discussed it, but the same rules apply - I can’t use any names. I could just talk about “National Companies”, “Wireless” “4G” etc etc. 

Yea, that’s do-able to a point, but you know, it’s not do-able by me. I don’t like pie-in-the-sky BS, and I don’t write for it. I also felt bad for my client - she was a bit bummed at these rules herself. The whole thing just didn’t feel right.

So I did the only thing I felt I could: I refunded her money. Even though I booked time for her, I could not keep this person’s money and do work I didn’t believe in. I’ll eat the time loss - I’ll be fine.

I may be $750 poorer, but I’ll sleep tonight. And I believe in Karma and stuff (that’s fodder for another post) - that $750 will come back to me.

I talk a lot here about the benefits of working for yourself, and yea, I admit, it’s a pretty nice gig overall. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, either. There are some drawbacks, and I’d be remiss if I did not mention a few of them. Keep in mind these are more slated towards me and people like me (basically a one-person or very small operation.)

• It’s hard doing everything in relation to your business. For example, I answer my own phone, and I answer all e-mail (I know you are saying “big deal”, but really, these two tasks eat up a lot of time. I’m getting better at reducing the time spent, but still, it’s a lot. )
  

  ---

• In relation to the above, guess who is responsible for all marketing and such… like adwords, updating the website, blog posts, business forums (gotta keep up a presence), etc. Yup, me again. And increasingly, these tasks are far from the “set it and forget it” they were a few years ago. Your website needs constant work. Your adwords needs attention. You need to write a blog. A few twitters won’t hurt. Etc. This all takes time. Truthfully, you get very few actual days off. The only time I ever really take off are my vacations, when I totally unplug. Otherwise, it’s generally seven days a week. Admittedly, I try not to do client work on weekends, but I still do the e-mail thing, I still work on the site and my marketing, and I’m writing this very blog post on a Saturday. It never really gets shut off.
  

  ---

• Us smaller operations are very vulnerable to the economy. Right now, I am working harder than I did two years ago, for about the same (and maybe even a little less) money. In an overall sense, the jobs (and invoices) have gotten smaller, there’s no doubt about that.
  

  ---

• We’re also very “exposed” in terms of competition. Here’s what I mean by that… my brother-in-law owns a popular local jewelry store. To compete with him, you really kind of need a million dollars to open a competing store. What do you need to compete with me? Some writing talent, a small website, and enough $$ for a few adwords ads… am I leaving anything out?  The barrier to entry for us small businesses is minuscule. That’s, of course, a good thing for people starting out, but it’s also not so great for those of us already here, as I just illustrated.
  

  ---

• There’s also the “grow or die” thing that all businesses seemingly must adhere to. If you aren’t moving forward, then you are moving backwards. But… maybe I’m happy where I am. Maybe I don’t really want to grow. Maybe I don’t really want to hire other writers and juggle 10 projects at once. I’m at this point right now - do I want to stay (essentially) a one-guy shop, or do I want to expand? See, staying a one-guy shop will be hard, because of my third point above (smaller jobs, more work, less money). But growing… that’s scary. What to do? I really don’t know the answer, so my first inclination was to actually try and combine the two by growing the “Dan Furman Brand”, so to say.  Which is what I’m going to try (that’s what the new website I’m working on is for.) 

I left out a lot of stuff, obviously, but the above should give you an idea that working for yourself is by no means ”easy” (as some people have told me it must be.) In fact, I wish sometimes my life was as simple as showing up to some job Mon-Fri, collecting a paycheck, and not even thinking about work during off hours. I’ve done both, and working for yourself is way harder. I like it better (by a good deal), but it’s by no means easy.

Goodness, that felt good to write

I noticed something about Facebook… not all of my friend’s posts make my front page - ever. Facebook seems to pick and choose what makes it to my default view by a “most popular news” thingee…

Which begs the question - how do they figure what’s most popular?

Which brings us to a second question - how long before businesses, who are starting to “get” Facebook, start looking to ”FSO” (Facebook Status Optimization… my term ) their way to the top?

Just a quick food for thought. And while we’re on it, WTF happened to Myspace? There’s fodder for another post.

The title for this blog post is pretty self-explanatory. I’m going to talk about a phenomena that’s all too common in business, and one that every businessperson needs to learn. And this goes for all types of businesses, everywhere - this happened to me twenty years ago when I had my little direct mail advertising business out of my apartment in Montgomery NY, and it happened to me yesterday.

It’s the simple fact that service providers and clients are often not always on the same page. Especially when it comes to quoting jobs verbally. It’s not that clients don’t hear what you are saying, it’s just that they interpret it a little different.

For example, if you give a price range verbally, the lower number will ALWAYS be the price.  If you give a timeframe, the fastest timeframe will ALWAYS be the one remembered.

And you have to be ready for this, because if you aren’t, it can get you into trouble. This is why we have written proposals - I do not get into quoting jobs verbally except in a very basic form. That’s because of the “what I say and what they hear” thing.

Perhaps an example would be easier to digest:

What I say to a client

Ok Mr. Client, here’s the project proposal - it will cost between $1,700 and $2,500. This will be for 8-12 pages of copy. I will start it the week of July 5th - now, that’s a holiday week, so it’ll likely start later in the week. But I will start it that week. The finished project will take  approximately 1-2 weeks from the time I start. Even though it’s usually not needed, I will include 1 edit to get to a final version.

What the client hears:

The project will cost $1,700 firm, and not a penny more. That will be for a minimum of 12 pages of copy. It will be started Monday morning, July 5th, at 7am sharp, and you will continue working on it until it is finished. A July 5th e-mail at 10am asking how things are going will be promptly responded to with great enthusiasm. The project will be completely finished by week’s end. Furthermore, I understand that you will do as many edits as I see fit, even if it means a change in project direction. 

Please keep in mind - the above is normal (I’m not complaining or blaming the client). In fact, when *I* am a client, I tend to do the same thing (I do try to catch myself… I’m just saying it’s normal to assume the most favorable terms for yourself.)

Dan Lesson: Verbal works fine for extreme basics. And even then, make sure you are ready for the above to happen - make your low number in the verbal the number you can really live with. But for official jobs, always do written proposals.

Years ago, I used to work in computer tech support. It was 1996/1997, and computers (and the internet) were still somewhat of a novelty. At least for most people.

And I admit, the nerd in me took pleasure in the caller’s incompetence. I mean, really, how could you NOT know how to copy/paste? How could you not know how to create a shortcut. Etc. Etc. I even really got some of those calls that sound like an urban legend:

Caller: My computer boots to funny writing.

Me: What version of Windows do you have?

Caller: Oh, there’s no windows here - I’m in the basement.

Or how about this gem…

Caller: My screen says “press any key”, but there’s no “ANY” key on the keyboard… (yea, it really happened.)

Anyway, I look back now and can (almost) forgive some of the ignorance - like I said, all of this was new to many people.

But here in 2010, I am still somewhat shocked by some of the utter ineptitude I come across. Much of it has to do with e-mail. Now, these aren’t just regular homeowners (like the people I dealt with 14 years ago were) - I deal with businesspeople now. And frankly, I am a little surprised about a few things. So allow me to help - here are some things you just have to know about if you want to converse via e-mail.

• Learn about your spam folder, and learn how to set the settings so you can accept attachments. I cannot count the number of times I got a curt “you never sent the file”  when I did indeed send it. I always say “check your spam folder”, to which I get maybe twenty seconds of silence, then a quiet ”oh…”
  
  
• Learn how to quote properly. I do not need to read the entire last week’s worth of conversation in our exchanges.
  
  
• On that note, please lose the four-line signature about how this message was intended for so and so and there’s an army of lawyers standing by if anyone tries anything funny… Nothing says “spineless corporate weenie” quite like 4 lines of legal disclaimer at the end of every_single_e-mail you send.
  
  
• If I have to register to reach you (as in those annoying spam protectors), well, I don’t. You’ll simply never hear from me. Stop hiding and take your Viagra e-mail like the rest of us.
  
  
• Address book - learn it, and use it. It’s really not that hard. Trust me, sending me an e-mail as a “re” to a  mail I sent you last year tells me you don’t know how to use an address book.
  
  
• Please stop sending 10mb attachments unless 10mb is truly needed. It slows everything up. Learn how to compress a picture if you must. Or ask a ten year old to do it for you.

Ok, I know I’m a little snide here - sorry, that’s my inner tech support dude (he needs to get out every now and again). But in all seriousness, it’s every businessperson’s responsibility to learn how to use e-mail efficiently and correctly, for both you and the receiver.