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By Tim Guetschow

The title of this article is my business philosophy in a clever algebraic expression. Honesty + Desirable product = Long term relationship. I explained it briefly on my website, and thought that it might be a good idea to expand on it here. I’ll discuss each part of the equation.

Honesty

I suppose we should define the word “Honesty.” At this point, many writers would say “Webster’s dictionary defines honesty as….” For the sake of time, I’m going a different route. Tim Guetschow defines honesty as: (1) Telling the truth. (2) Not intending to deceive.

This is the first thing I believe is essential for any business, and any person for that matter; to be honest and truthful in all dealings, in every relationship. Yes, there is the question of what to say when your wife asks “Does this make me look fat?” Since this article is about my business philosophy, and not my marriage philosophy, I won’t use up your time with an explanation of the fool-proof answer to that question.

“So, honesty and truthfulness in all dealings?” Yes, in all dealings, even in sales and marketing, which I realize is one of the hardest areas in which to practice this virtue. “Isn’t that going to hurt your sales?” That depends. Are you offering a product or service that people actually want, or has a real benefit? This leads to the next part of the equation.

Desirable Product

It should be obvious to most that, if there is no market demand for your product or service, you have no business. But there is kind of a gray area. What if there is only a little market demand? What if you wish there was more? Sadly, many people, even a few used car salesmen, have figured out that they can create a little more market demand if they are less than honest–or so it seems.

But are they really creating more market demand? Yes. This demand, however, is not for their product. It is for the imaginary product that they describe to the prospective customer. Beside being wrong, this is also bad business. “But doesn’t this earn you more money, which is the goal of business?” Yes and no. And making money at all costs should not be the goal of any business. This leads to the third part of the equation.

Long Term Relationship

Let me explain my “yes and no” answer. If you want to make a quick buck, looking only to the short term, then yes, dishonesty is effective. If, on the other hand, you want to establish and maintain a long term relationship with your customers, honesty is more effective, and you may even want to take it a step further by leaving out a few desirable details that the customer will be pleasantly surprised to discover after the purchase.

“But wouldn’t you make more sales per pitch if you left out a few undesirable details and explained other details in a more favorable light?” Yes, you probably would. But how disappointed do you want your customer to be after the purchase? I would bet the chances are much greater that a customer will purchase again if there were no unpleasant surprises after the purchase. Not only that, but probably more importantly, they will likely tell others how happy they are with their latest purchase and refer them to you, and even if you do have to pitch to this referral, it will likely be an easier sell.

“But what if being truthful with the prospect lowers my sales? Or worse, cuts my sales to zero?” Again, you may get less sales per pitch by increasing your honesty, but you will get more repeat business and more referrals. And if honesty defeats your best sales efforts, I would venture to say that you either need a new product, you need to drastically lower your price, or you REALLY need to work on your salesmanship.

So there you have it; my business philosophy explained. I’d love to tell you that this philosophy has earned me millions, but that wouldn’t be very honest of me.

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by Tim Guetschow

We all know that in freelancing, as in any business, there is a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs. Most of the time, people think of this as the ebb and flow of income. Though income definitely ebbs and flows, this time I’m talking about emotion. Motivation. Enthusiasm. Hope.

I recently experienced this phenomena. I was bidding on a job and decided that, for this particular bid, a sample would be in order. I had a pretty good idea of what the guy wanted, and it was a quick turn-around job, so I whipped up a little something to show him. I wrote up a proposal which I sent with the sample to him late that night. The next morning, to my surprise, a message was waiting for me.

“Wow! Thanks for the sample! It looks GREAT!”

He went on to say that it wasn’t quite what he was looking for. So he sent me a sample he had found which was closer to what he wanted, and he asked if I could include that kind of style in the design, and, of course, I said “yes.”

Within five minutes he had sent me, via PayPal, the deposit that I required to start the job. Not only did he immediately decide to give me the job, but he ended his talent search three days earlier than he had planned.

What a great way to win a job! I felt like I was on top of the world. Could it get any better? Not only was he impressed by my quickly done sample, but he stopped searching almost immediately after finding me. He found exactly what he was looking for, and it was ME!

I went on to finish the job in about a week, which was about a week earlier than he wanted it. We had wonderful communication throughout the process, and both of us were as pleased as we could be with each other. It’s great to find great clients!

If I had died right then, I could have finished with “and I lived happily ever after.”

I was feeling like I could win any job I wanted because, obviously, I’m just that good. Along came another opportunity to bid on a quick turn around job. The guy described what he wanted pretty well, so I thought “let’s do another sample and knock this guys socks off.” I did the sample, wrote up a similar proposal and sent them off. The next morning, again, I was surprised. No message. Hmmm… maybe he hadn’t actually looked at my sample yet, so I gave him more time.

The next several mornings were the same story. Finally, I got another message. “I like the sample. How much do you want for it?” “Come on, man, where’s the enthusiasm?” I thought. He apparently hadn’t read my proposal very closely, because the price was in there. So I told him again.

Again, several days went by with no reply. And then, came the reply, “No thanks too much.” “What? You’re not gonna get anything decent for cheaper” I thought. So I was frustrated. I decided to start writing a proposal for another potential job that I was thinking about. I went to the online job board where I had found it to read the project description again, and found that he had already given the job to someone else! He didn’t even give me a chance! This was not turning out to be a good day.

I searched around for some other projects on the job board and found nothing. NOTHING! By this time I had moved from frustrated to dejected and deflated. Just last week I was an all star! At the top of my game! From way up there, I could see for miles, and all I saw was sweet success. Nothing could stop me. And now, 11:30 p.m. tired, frustrated, and dejected, I was thinking “Why I am even doing this? Will I ever win another decent job? ‘Too much’ he says. Maybe my work isn’t that valuable. Is this whole freelancing thing worth it?” So I just went to bed.

Ok, so maybe I was over-reacting a little. But it was quite a disappointment. And the next morning, the feeling was still lingering and along with it, a lack of motivation. So I was sitting at my computer going over in my mind what had happened the night before.

The thought occurred to me that I needed a dose of encouragement. Something to get me excited again. So I went to google and punched in “entrepreneur motivational podcast.” And there it was. A very well done small biz podcast that gave me exactly what I needed. It gave me all kinds of new marketing ideas, reminded me how great it is to have your own business, and it was hosted by a guy in the UK, so it was like listening to Monty Python at the same time!

So, as I said at the start, freelancing is a roller-coaster ride. There will be ups and downs both financially and emotionally. When you’re on top of your game, don’t get too self-confidant, and when you’re at the bottom, don’t get too discouraged. And when you are discouraged, or even when you’re not, go find something to read or listen to, or someone to talk with to lift your head so you can see what’s going on around you. The world hasn’t stopped, and the opportunities still abound. Just don’t get caught up in your own little world, and definitely, don’t get off the ride before it’s done. That’s just stupid.