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Business Owners Are Worst Clients

zencapital.substack.com

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Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients

#21

Post by trollbridge »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #18
bix6 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn this hits. My dream is a solo firm where I deal with nobody. I’ll never get there of course because the world runs on relationships.

Businesses actually require even more relationships than standard wage slaves. Consultants need to be even more of a "people person." The main difference is that, for an owner, they "have no boss." (In quotes, because customers tend to be even more demanding "bosses," than managers). My experience, from knowing quite a few business owners, is that they are always "angling for the edge." They want to squeeze every bit…

A business owner has lots of bosses: basically every customer.

Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients

#22

Post by plqbfbv »

My wife is a freelance digital marketing specialist, this post basically describes what she's been seeing since the start of her career 10 years ago.

As a tech guy, I've found that business owners tend to be way more pushy. Normally they fall in the boomer category, or they simply are not in the field.

Both categories seem to assume that "ahhh IT, things are instant and tomorrow I'll have 10'000 daily visitors", while that's very far from the case. They think that spending money today means results tomorrow as in "next sunrise", while digital marketing is basically subject to the whims of Google/Instagram/... and their algorithms, and investing today means seeing results at the very earliest after three months.

You tell them beforehand many times, they sign a contract, they agree with everything... and then after 2 weeks they start asking you daily why things are not improving, with zero respect for work hours or personal boundaries. That's how they choose someone else via "high-friction", and they normally land on bigger agencies because they think bigger agency = faster results.

Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients

#23

Post by tramov »

jeffbee wrote: post #2

I'd like to see the prompts used here because Claude will simply reinforce whatever conclusion you already reached if your approach to prompting isn't neutral.

Seconded, with nearly 200 out of 800 relations being terminated negatively, I am sure that this business owner must have some serious doubts and is trying to find patterns.

Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients

#24

Post by vrganj »

trollbridge wrote: post #21
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Businesses actually require even more relationships than standard wage slaves. Consultants need to be even more of a "people person." The main difference is that, for an owner, they "have no boss." (In quotes, because customers tend to be even more demanding "bosses," than managers). My experience, from knowing quite a few business owners, is that they are always "angling for the edge." They want to squeeze every bit…

A business owner has lots of bosses: basically every customer.

That's true, but as business owner you can also fire your boss.

Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients

#25

Post by aaarrm »

lelanthran wrote: post #15
jeffbee wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the selection may run the other way (or both ways). The population of small business owner-operators is disproportionately stocked with people who don't get along well with other people, who selected themselves out of having to deal with an organization of peers.

How many small business owners do you know? All the ones I have dealt with have survived precisely because of their ability to get along with people. If you have no people skills your small business will fail.

I think they get along with people but don't like being told what to do, or be told "how things are".

Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients

#26

Post by cj »

lelanthran wrote: post #15
jeffbee wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the selection may run the other way (or both ways). The population of small business owner-operators is disproportionately stocked with people who don't get along well with other people, who selected themselves out of having to deal with an organization of peers.

How many small business owners do you know? All the ones I have dealt with have survived precisely because of their ability to get along with people. If you have no people skills your small business will fail.

Maybe a better framing is “business owners are comfortable and accustomed to having conflicts in professional environments”

An employee doesn’t show up for work a few days in a row, you have to fire them the next day. Every day they’re pushing against the grain.

A vendor isn’t behaving? A business owner isn’t scared of using conflict to resolve the situation.

Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients

#27

Post by santoshalper »

jeffbee wrote: post #6
accrual wrote: post #4

I wonder if there's an element of self-selection. The type of people to own a business could be more likely to put up a fight when things don't go their way (e.g. to protect the business and their investments), whereas the typical consumer is more likely to accept things as they are and not fight the business ("whatever, I'll just use another service").

I think the selection may run the other way (or both ways). The population of small business owner-operators is disproportionately stocked with people who don't get along well with other people, who selected themselves out of having to deal with an organization of peers.

I think it's simpler than that. The business owner is spending their own money. When they feel (rightly or wrongly) that they are not getting what they paid for, they will feel ripped-off and angry.

The employee is spending someone else's money - they are more likely to be rational or even blasé about losses when it is not their money.

Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients

#28

Post by justonceokay »

lelanthran wrote: post #15
jeffbee wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the selection may run the other way (or both ways). The population of small business owner-operators is disproportionately stocked with people who don't get along well with other people, who selected themselves out of having to deal with an organization of peers.

How many small business owners do you know? All the ones I have dealt with have survived precisely because of their ability to get along with people. If you have no people skills your small business will fail.

I don’t know it’s a toss up for me. I would say anecdotally about 1/4 of business owners I know are community pillars and truly get along with most everyone. The other 3/4 are forced into business ownership because they struggle to take direction from anyone else.

In my experience contractors are the most likely to be friendly, and small retail the most likely to be unfriendly.

Re: Business Owners Are Worst Clients

#29

Post by justonceokay »

cj wrote: post #26
lelanthran wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many small business owners do you know? All the ones I have dealt with have survived precisely because of their ability to get along with people. If you have no people skills your small business will fail.

Maybe a better framing is “business owners are comfortable and accustomed to having conflicts in professional environments” An employee doesn’t show up for work a few days in a row, you have to fire them the next day. Every day they’re pushing against the grain. A vendor isn’t behaving? A business owner isn’t scared of using conflict to resolve the situation.

Yeah, the phrase “the buck stops here” is literally true with a business owner. Employees have the privilege to fantasize—the owner uniquely does not.
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