I first started out in business thinking it was all about me, something I learned from behind-the-marketing scenes at the corporations which employed me. Then a few years later, I adopted the advice of various marketing business experts about clients: It’s all about them.
Yet that grovelling sort of mindset always felt phony and compliant.
“I will do whatever you say in order to get your money.” It made me feel powerless. It made me feel like a fraud. It made me feel cheap.
You and your client may be exchanging money, but you’re also involved in a spiritual exchange. I’m defining spiritual here to mean operating on something other than greed, some set of values that you and your business stand for no matter what.
Now, I believe it’s about them and you. That anything else dehumanizes everyone involved.
Your customers are important, but so is your need to express yourself as a business owner with a certain belief system. You’re both alternately giving and receiving from this relationship. Everyone involved needs to be treated with dignity and respect, to be seen as equals.
How can I be of valuable service if I lose myself in the process or I don’t give you my honest opinion because I’m frightened you will withdraw from the arrangement and I will lose out on snagging your money?
It takes a certain belief in your self to move into the mindset “It’s About Them and You.”
Start by examining your past and present relationships with clients. Are you operating as an equal? Do you feel good at the end of the service or the completion of the product? Did you skirt around any of your own values?
Comments welcomed and adored! Thanks, Giulietta
Julie you are so right! As a web designer/developer, the projects I feel best about are the ones that evolve from a healthy exchange of input from both client and myself. Projects that I have deferred completely to a client driven design are rarely ones that make me feel good. If I can’t feel good about putting my name in a credit line in the footer of a website, then I know the balance wasn’t there.
Hi Anne,
Great way to put it: Wanting to feel good about putting your name in the footer.
It can feel demoralizing to be hired to work on a project and then relegated to Simon Says status. In the long ago past, I agreed to all sorts of biz owner humiliations to “make the sale and keep the sale.” Awful experiences. Might as well work for a big corporation if I’m going to be a cog. If someone wants me to “design a logo they designed,” I pass on it. They don’t need me … Appreciate you stopping in! G.
Look forward to reading those Fearless Tales and could certainly use some fearless motivation. Interesting that you often go to business sites looking for a blog. As you say, it’s a good way to size up and get a feel for the person/business. However, with blogs, I’m often put off by poor writing, content, grammar, or punctuation.