TJ Gamble

When I was just starting out in business, I had the problem of thinking that everytime someone requested something, it was an emergency.  I would work all night on website updates for someone, just because the client said it was important.  In doing so, I found myself working all the time, taking calls late at night for updates that had to be done by morning.  It was a very stressful time, and still to this day I find myself falling into this trap.

There was a comic posted at an office I used to work at that said something to the effect:  “Lack of preperation on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine”.  Live by that.  Don’t be afraid to say “no” or that you can’t meet a requested deadline.  Don’t fall into the trap of dropping what you are working on to take care of the “call of the moment”.  Make them wait their turn just like everyone else.

I have clients where everything is an emergency.  How could this be?  How could everything be this important?  It’s not.  It’s just their nature to be worrysome.  On the other hand, I have clients where I sometimes feel bad because their updates took so long, but they call and thank me for “jumping right on it” when they are done.

Being in business is more than managing projects.  It includes managing clients.  If you can manage your clients, then the job will eat you alive with stress.  So, chill out, seperate the truly time-sensitive updates from the rest and tell them to wait.