Everyone of my clients is "rich"
Everyone of my clients is "rich"
(OP)
In the past week I have been asked to look at some projects from some of my clients. Some of the projects just don't make any sense and when I point this out to my client, they come to me with some form or another on how rich the end client is. It's either take a look at his mansion here..... or the guy owns 400 rental properties bla bla bla. Then I get the "this project is going to go forward and we need to begin doing this leg work". Then when I balk a bit they say "What, you don't want to do the work?".
Why is everyone so fascinated with this aspect?
Oh, and at least one of the projects has already been cancelled because it just didn't make any sense.
Why is everyone so fascinated with this aspect?
Oh, and at least one of the projects has already been cancelled because it just didn't make any sense.
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
However, I am just fascinated with how people try to justify wasting my time with a stupid carrot on how rich the end client is. Indirectly/directly I have worked for well know billionaires and I don't really care as long as I get paid. I don't understand why these guys do.... they just love the carrots.
I guess this goes together with my other post of "why are engineers so bad at sales" in this same forum.
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
"We just sold a pretty picture to a wealthy client that doesn't know anything about buildings. Our junior staff is going to try to put together some construction documents. We're going to rely on our consultants to flush out our plans enough to keep all of us from being sued. If we don't get sued and the client has another job, we're going to try the same line on a different engineer."
Then again, sometimes bad work is better than no work.
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
Other advantages of billionaires homes is that if the project is 10% over budget, it means they are 0.1% less rich and therefore may or may not be a bit annoyed. If a developer is 10% over budget, its the whole project profit out the window and they sue you.
I will also advise you to not listen to architect's opinions about money. There are certain factual things they may inform you of, but their opinion of the lucrativeness of an opportunity is meaningless. If they cared about money they would not be architects.
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
actually developers get rich by taking a chance and investing. not always risking their own money. and they often fail and lose everything. development is a dog eat dog industry. engineers and contractors working for the developers are usually the ones left holding the bag when a scheme doesn't work out.
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
Billionaires have their own issues, but generally the terms of the engagement are much less onerous, and you have the freedom to design awesomeness. This is your big opportunity to:
1. Cantilever a whole house off the face of a cliff
2. Make a zero embedded carbon passive house with recycled concrete
3. Design for a 10,000 year service life
4. Make a titanium monocoque shell holding up the roof
5. Design an actively damped seismic isolation system
6. Build a gigantic all glass dome.
Your billionaire will adore you if you make it awesome. If he sees you as a commodity however, he will shop you around and nickle and dime you on everything.
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
If the project is worth investigating, someone will pay it. If they pay you to do that study, great. If that sentence shuts them up and they get someone else to do it for free, no skin off your back. If they say they'll pay and they don't, you just had a low-risk way of adding someone to your "do not do business with ..." list that we all seem to have ...
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
glass, I think most see us as a commodity. If that were not the case the two envelope bidding process would be far more common.
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
Maine Professional and Structural Engineer. www.fepc.us
(Just passed the 16-hour SE exam, woohoo!)
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
A little bit of free work at the beginning can be worthwhile. Projects are like a short term marriage, and you have to date each other a bit first to make sure you are a good fit.
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
Much of my work revolves around me pitching an idea to a wealthy client. This is not the same thing as doing a concept design for something they know they want. It also hopefully gets you into a no-bid situation for your proposal. Competitive bids for design services suck!
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
http://www.lifo.gr/uploads/image/707287/damien-hir...
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
On the part about doing work for repeat good clients. In a round about way I have had my clients take my information and then award the engineering to another company before.
This was a client who I have worked with for 10+ years. So I try to avoid this where ever possible.
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
(1) the closer you get to the money, the more money you make,
(2) free work is marketing, and marketing only returns on the investment when you land the work you're fishing for,
(3) Opportunity cost.
If you're setting aside paying work to do non-paying work on the hope that the non-paying work pans out, you're doing it wrong. If you don't have paying work to do, then you should be marketing, and spending your time on whatever activity that's most likely to land you more paying work. If that marketing activity turns out to be pro bono work to land a future paying job, so be it. But don't complain about it. Just admit to yourself that it's marketing, and be glad you're not filling the same time doing cold calls or passing out business cards to strangers, because those activities are infinitely less pleasurable than actually doing work. At least for me, anyway.
Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East - http://www.campbellcivil.com
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
In such situations I limit myself to a couple of meetings/long phone calls and provide only nicely drawn but not detailed sketches. I think its key in such situations to hold back critical information about how to make the job work, and make it clear that they will need to hire you to have you spill the beans. I think after a certain amount of this kind of work you should simply ask to send them a proposal.
RE: Everyone of my clients is "rich"
TTFN

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