Nice people can be a contractor’s worst nightmare

Everyone who reads my blogs has probably met someone in their lifetime at least once who isn’t real sincere, or someone who comes off really friendly in the beginning but end up being a nightmare.  We’ve all come across someone like this. When you are estimating, you are going to see a lot of this. The more estimating you do, the more of these people you will encounter.

It’s not a real common thing for me. I’ve been in the construction and plumbing industry for so long – I can pretty much read these people in the first minutes of our telephone conversation.  When a new customer calls beaming with enthusiasm, and being very complimentary of the work you do– they usually are not who they seem to be.

Watch out for the people who act like your best friend, like they have known you for years, but the minute you give them a price, they turn into a rage.  Try not to get caught up in this. Don’t get caught up in other people’s problems or other people’s beliefs.  I know it’s in our human nature to want to be friendly, and to love people, but you need to make a living too. If you can take one thing away from my blogs and tips, I would cement this into your brain -- You can’t afford to do stuff for free!  You can’t afford to do it for your friends for a long time and still make your house payments, or put food on the table.

Another scenario of people that act like your friends, are the ones who call and give you the impression that you already got the job.  You invest so much time and work creating an estimate. You may even go to their home on more occasion, but than you submit the estimate – and its crickets!

Whatever the psychology is behind this, don’t let it get you down. Go in there and give them a price that you’re happy with, not what they are happy with, because it’s all about making money and having a better life. It’s not just about doing favors for everyone.  A little bit a common sense can go a long way but in your pocket book it’s not going to go very far.

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