Family and Business Don´t Mix!

[Zeitgeist]

Hi Guys, just felt like sharing some of my Experiences from the past Months and warn you Guys about doing Business with Family! It doesn´t work; no matter what you arrange before you go to work. Somehow, family oftenly assumes that just because they are related to you, you should work 42 hours a week for free. Had a couple of pretty heavy weeks and i am beyond pissed because i totally pushed most of the Work on my own Websites back in order to help one of my Relatives out. Next time anyone asks me to do something for free, no matter who it is and even if it is the Virgin Mary herself who´s coming down from the sky and asks for a Webpresence....There will be only one Answer!: "F you, Pay Me!"

But now, let me give you some of the Backstory first. So my Uncle has a small Company and he´s making decent money. He´s doing handwork throughout the summer but works in a branche that is dead over winter. But he is good with Chemicals and created some chemical additives that he could potentially sell for good Money. The Product is done and would only need a good Marketing and reliable Shipping to become very successful. All he did so far was putting the Product on ebay and his Auction is so old that it ranks on Postition 1 on google and that´s why he´s selling a handful of his Products a month; without Marketing. Now that´s where i come in the Picture. I am doing SEO and build Websites for other Companies and myself. It took me a couple of years to get to the Point but i build solid Websites now. Closed CMS Systems for small Business that allow them to sell their Product and i could sell the sh*t out of my Uncles Products. He asked me to build him a Webpresence for free and i agreed because i usually do that in a couple of days. I built him a website, which turned out pretty good but that wasn´t the End of it. My Uncle asked if i could help him with his Bookkeeping and international Correspondence because he is totally overloaded with everything. And not only bookkeeping but also building him websites as he needs them and run them, including handling the Shipping of the Products that are ordered. I said, sure i can do that (because i have 10 year Experience working with worldwide Trading and Ebay) but you will have to pay me. He said, payment is certainly not a Problem and asked how much. Now, we are talking about at least 4 Hours a Day and 6 Days a week. And not only that but being on a 24/7 phone emergency service for my uncle because he´s totally uncapable of working with a computer. So i said that i need about 450 a month and that is my gift to my Uncle because if i would spend the Time doing other Things like my own Websites, i would make a whole lot more. So long Story short; i made him three websites that are really good and spent at least two months of very hard work, but he´s not really interested to pay what we agreed on and handed me a hundred Bucks. You know, i had my designer create 5 different Logos for him that already cost more than that. Not counting the cost of the Webspace and stuff like that.

And it p*sses me off because he could make a hell lot of money if he wouldn´t be so stupid to save at the wrong Place. But you shouldnt expect people to be smart, should you? The Product is perfect for ebay, Amazon and with a couple of facebook Ads, he could sit and watch the Money flow. But really, Good Work needs to be paid fair but it´s really a good Product so we could both make money. But especially in Webdesign, people think that work on the Computer isn´t real work because, you know, you just type on the Keyboardand stuff. Gave him the Log-In Data for the websites and told he i can´t do this kind of Work for him anymore unless he´s willing to pay up front. I have my Costs too and when i spent weeks working on someones Stuff, i don´t have the Time to work on other Stuff. And that has a Price too. So yeah, gotta walk away from that because i will not work for free. Especially not when it´s the Family! I hate that i have to say that but be careful not to let people take Advantage of your Work! In most Cases. they will not Appreciate it!

[forgottenhero]

i can understand man same has happened with me they think its just siting on computer typing with keyboard that's it.....i had my uncle they have handcraft business they were doing good offline and wanted to go online. and i was the one who could help them out as they new i us to work online. They came to me asking for help to get them online i said ok i will help you. I purchased domain name hosting plan WordPress template costed me around 150$ now when i asked them to put some money for seo and to buy some adwords........What my uncle replayed to me let us first get some sales from website then we will invest some money for adwords and seo............i was like.....Holy shit.......i said thank you so much for wasting my time and money and tata bye bye somehow i was able to resell my template and could recover 50$ now using web-hosing for my own website but domain name is not for use as its for handcraft niche.....from the day i decided will ask for the cost first then will take further action and will not spend a signal penny from my own pocket.....people think how smart they are but they are not......

[Academica]

Same has happened to me back in the days when i was learning and was excited what online marketing does. You guys are lucky that you did this mistake just one time - i did it man times, not only with family members but also with "close" friends.

Now i know and always ask for prepayment at least for half of the money (if there is margin for me) or the whole sum if no margin otherwise i say to them "bye bye, go purchase in fiverr.com".

Yes i put margin for me even for friends and relatives - the truth is this is REAL WORK even if it is in Virtual world. No one from them has helped me for free ever. So..

Time is precious, my time even more! ;)

[jameswester]

good advice

[grumble]

Then there is the "But I didn't make any sales so I can't see why I should pay - you can't have done a good job".

Always quote a price and be happy to walk away. Tell them it's business, you will do extra but there is a basic cost. If they don't like it or get it, ask if they work for free or sell their services for free, then walk away.

Hence I am doing nothing but my own work these days.

Don't get me started on Indian customers - ALWAYS been ripped off by them - Haggle and never paid once in 40 years. That's my experience, not starting a flame war. There are probably honest ones but personally, they've all avoided me.

[zaff]

Yup,same thing happened to me.Lesson learned!

In my case it lasted a couple of years and it was ok at first,but in the long run it all fell apart.I also had similar experiences with close friends (male and female),just to realize we are not that close after all...they just needed someone to do something for them,but didn't feel the need to reciprocate or return the favour.

Now i have a type of mental "favours bank" system.You helped me out,you have deposit in my "bank".I help you out and then i withdrawal the favour from my "bank".It keeps me fair and everyone else.Nobody wants to be taken advantage of.

[grumble]

I've found the best way is to quote it like a normal job, present the quote and say 10% off for family. When asked why, you say "This gives you a right to expect a professional job and forces me to deliver a professional job. It shows you value my work and aren't just taking advantage of me."

Always worked for me. They stop, think and then realise. If they argue, say "That's ok, we've both learned a lesson"

[fnetv1]

I must have good family members because they would beg to pay me if I dont want to charge them. For example, I have an aunt who is currently unemployed due to health problems (she was working as a home attendant and was carrying old people around, it was too heavy for her and she injured her back, now she has a case pending with the court for worker's compensation because her employer doesn't even wanted to giver her that), she is divorced and is raising two sons by her self. Her laptop gets damaged, I go and I fix it, I dont charge her and she is begging me to charge her something because according to her this is my profession and this is what I do for a living (which is true, computer repairs is my profession). I maintain my position and dont charge her. I do the same for her son's computer and her daughter's computer, I repair them and dont charge them anything because they need the money to buy food, etc. Its my way of helping them.

My other family members pays me when I charge them without any complaint.