Re: Client woes: a question to ask yourself...

Subject: Re: Client woes: a question to ask yourself...
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2002 11:22:50 -0800

Charles E Vermette wrote:

You can be a skilled writer or a knowledgeable "techie", but if you don't
have a good business sense, you'll constantly be skipping across
minefields.

Your comment brings up an interesting point: why do most technical writing programs almost entirely ignore the business aspects? Most people seem to learn the way that I did - by plunging in and making mistakes and trying to learn from them. That's an effective way to learn, but I can't help thinking that it's also a very wasteful one. A few hints could have saved me a lot of grief, and I'm sure that most contractors would agree.

Lastly, If you have business savvy/experience, but wind up getting
burned, you ignored a basic business principle somewhere along the line.
Figure out what it was, learn for it, and move on.

That's often the case, but not always. No matter how aware you are of the need for caution in dealing with people, a certain amount of trust is necessary. To give an obvious example, every company in the world has to assume that a signed contract is honored - otherwise, doing business becomes impossible. However, it's not impossible to come across someone who calculates that they can break a contract and that you won't spend the time pursuing them. So, no matter how careful you are (and, personally, I've learned more than I ever cared to know in the last few years about other people's dishonesty and general lack of integrity), there's always a certain amount of vulnerability that's inescapable.

--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com

"I have lead a good life, quiet and artistic,
Now I shall have an old age, coarse and anarchistic."
- Utah Phillips




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Client woes: a question to ask yourself...: From: Charles E Vermette

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