For the last ten days I have been working very hard. Today I started at 0400 AM. But the results are bad. Yesterday I asked to be paid for a project finished one and half years ago, and the businessman said he did not receive all the permits and will not pay me. I said that we are two years after the permit if he has problems of renewing it, it is not my problem and I am retiring all the designs I submitted so he automatically loses his permit to sell his products. And the Fire Department will immediately close down the whole outfit. We shouted to each other and I was about to go to his place to collect but I had another urgent project to finish.
I finished this morning the olive oil project and the food engineer had to sign it to be submitted to the Ministry of Health. She said she is moving back to Ucraine and opening a hotel near the Azov Sea and has no time and anyway, she needs a complete architectural drawing of the place including sections. I had recommended her, so I am being blamed for her demands, the client imagined that I would take responsability for the whole project.
I'm so pressed by deadlines that have no time to send out bills and money is not coming in. I am rethinking my business: Change number one, reject small, desperate, struggling, inexperienced clients, because they dont believe in the difficulties they are facing and how much it will cost them. They cannot get themselves to accept the fact that a permit to sell felafel in the street in Tel Aviv takes one year and about 5,000 dollars worth of architectural and engineering fees. They are not willing to understand that the oil interceptor they are required to install costs more than their felafel making machine. I'm going to focus on the "cream" of the market, that is large firms that know the demands and are not searching for tricks to avoid paying.
It is very un-PC to say so, but an engineer like myself should not even talk to these kind of people. They are not "gente decente", "gente como uno". I am so angry and sad that I invested so much energy and time in working for the wrong kind of clients.
7 comments:
Discovering 80/20 rule all over again.
Where did you learn Spanish?
Also on an earlier post you mentioned Mexicali, I assume you mean Baja California?
These desperate clients of yours, all sound Indian to me. Rule number one when dealing with Indians is to ask for the money first.
Ivan
The Central Committee has noted, with approval, your conversion to Political Correctness.
Powerful voices are now arguing for forgiveness for your many crimes.
Comrade J, you may sleep easier tonight.
Anon.
I am not an elitist and I do not hate different people. But I have no more time for immoral, non-serious people.
You are right. Unfortunately, by the time we discover this, it is towards the end rather than the beginning of our lives.
Anon.
As Aristotle said, the young are optimist, generous, innocent. It takes fifty years to acquire a more mature vision of reality.
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