A Valuable Lesson

About a month ago, I raised a bill for service rendered to a client handled by an associate. The client jumped at the deemed unexpected enormous amount and asked for a discount. A post-mortem helped analysed what and where went wrong and I learnt a few valuable lessons in business :-

1. Always agree on a written Terms Of Reference, never based on verbal agreement;

2. Raise interim progressive bills, not a lump sum at the end of an open-ended project so that clients are not caught off-guard i.e. clients are more willing to pay smaller amounts and not feel the 'pain';

3. What you focus on expands : don't sweat and feel miserable about clients who do not appreciate the value of service rendered; move on and concentrate on clients who do appreciate and who are good paymasters;

4. Do not repeat mistakes made, learn from mistakes and be wiser the next round;

5. Ask for/Accept advance payments especially when offered i.e. money in the bank first is always better; then over-deliver;

Hmm... posting these points down as a reminder :-)