Success in Sweatpants

Another down side to playing with the bottom feeders is the reality of human motivation.

If you are being paid a much lower rate than you know you are worth, how good a job are you going to do?

Now, be honest. You may have the best intentions in the world starting out, but I promise you that sooner or later you will begin resenting the work, client, and the money.

If you do deliver at your usual high quality level for the first job, guess what? The buyer is likely to come back for more; why wouldn’t they, when they’ve scored such a great provider for such a small expense?

And try as you will to maintain professionalism and deliver a good product, your quality will slip sooner or later. How could it not? You will end up working more and enjoying it less.

Another aspect of bottom feeding buyers that I have noticed, though not in a scientifically sound manner, is that this type of client also tends to be very demanding and capricious—in other words, high maintenance people who eat up your time with emails, phone calls, and changes that they consider part of the original fee.

The most abusive clients also seem to come from this population. It’s counterintuitive, but the less they pay for services, the more demanding and abusive they are prone to be.

Who needs all that aggravation?