I Need it Done Yesterday!

As we all know, times are tough. At least that is what they keep telling us. Because of this fact, anyone who is in business for themselves is constantly holding their breath that everything doesn't fall apart. For me and my business, we have some decent accounts that keeps the money rolling just good enough to keep our nose above water. (At least I think this think brown liquid I am standing in is water...) Really, I had been "lucky" during this recession. That is until recently. The phone stopped ringing, and some of my long time accounts started looking for ways to save money. It's almost as if the recession finally made it's way to the Midwest.

But, in my business of cleaning floors, the rough winter could be a blessing in disguise. Though it was horrible while it was happening, I think it has left many a floor in desperate need of attention. With the nicer weather that has began to surface, people are starting to think it's safe to have some work done on their floors. The problem is, they always call up on a Wednesday and say they are having some head honcho come in to inspect their store and "we need to have our floors done over the weekend". Now, I will be the first one to tell you that I am a disorganized mess in many areas of my life, including parts of my business. But one thing I am organized about is calling service providers. I always give them plenty of warning. Most likely I am this way because I hate getting that late week phone call. Another reason I am probably this way is because I know that when someone calls me up at the last minute to have some work done, I have what I like to refer to as a "rush fee". The nice thing about these last minute phone calls is that they are going to be desperate, and they may not get anyone that is interested in doing the job for them on such short notice. Cha-CHING!

The worst feeling though, is when you give them a price and they don't even blink an eye and immediately say, "Okay, what time can you get started?", which means I could have gotten more moola. At that point, "Bloody hell!!!", is the expression that usually enters my head. This happened to me a few weeks ago. Only this lady called on a Thursday and needed the work completed by Friday night. So, I shot her a price that I thought was a little on the high side, and even before I had the number completely out of my mouth she said, "It's yours!". Now, what makes this worse is the next day when I am cleaning her floor, she says, "Oh, by the way the week of the 22nd I have another store I need you to do. It's the same size, can you just do it for the same price?". "Bloody hell!!!"

Oh well, it could be worse. I could be a real estate agent in California. That might call for an upgrade to the expression in my head.