How is 2022 treating you?. My Breakfast experience
2022 started on a high note for me. I was super expectant and excited. It looked super promising and still does. But so far it's been quite discouraging but I am still hopeful. I didn't want stress to begin my year so I made sure my major financial commitment that is meant to happen early parts of the year was taken care of last year. But yet I still collected my share of heart break somehow even with the fact that I try not to put my mind at things that much. I don't count my chickens before they have hatched
Pray for your clients, it's an investment. Some of them also have expectations in other to meet yours. And so when they make promises, sometimes it's in faith. I was looking up to start one of my projects by January but my client isn't financial capable yet so I pray God blesses him abundantly. But the painful experience came with an old intending client turned friend.
You know this particular client contacted me first 2017. And he said he was ready. Make us go through all the necessary procedures and assures us till after three months of all processes plus procedures were put to waste.
He said we should postpone the project for a little while. He later came back after six months and the whole process again and yet still wasted our time, he gave the family needs and expenditure excuses. And that he wants to take care of his parents and siblings for the festive season. Christmas and New Year Holidays were approaching then. Then after the holidays he claimed he has done too much and that he was broke already. Another process has gone to waste. Annoying yeah, but I had to be professional.
Fast forward to early this year. He contacted us again and this time sounded so serious and we were convinced. He told me his budget and that we should travel down to Benin this time for the same project site inspection. He insisted on knowing my office and my house address. He even sent his friends to come and verify. Since I have nothing to hide, they came to my house and I even offered his friends the best wine I had in my store. So my personal assistant and carpenter was to travel down to Benin and this Client insisted I must be the one to make the trip. And gave so many reasons why I should be the one to come for the inspection. He promised he was going to make payments on we getting down to Benin after inspection so he doesn't trust any of my staffs
My carpenter and I left for Benin eventually. I even almost fainted on our way down to Benin because the journey was longer than I expected because we went by road. Since it was a journey of less than 6 hours. I could still manage. But it ended up taking us almost 7 hours and I didn't have breakfast because I left my house as early as 5 am to make the first bus.
We got to Benin and from the park to his house took us another 1 and half hours to get to the site. The site was at one of the newest areas of Benin towards the outskirts. We spent another 2 hours on the site taking detailed measurements and taking detailed pictures since it was an out of Lagos project.
We had to sleep in a cheap motel because the client claimed he forgot his wallet at home and I had limited cash on me. We even feed ourselves and paid for his own meals and he promised to refund. I didn't have any issues with that because I don't have any reasons to doubt him. We discussed the budget and we agreed on a budget giving all the preferences discussed on site. We got back to Lagos the following day. He promised to make payments on Monday which was two days time, we went on a weekend.
Our journey back to Lagos was so smooth. We spent just four hours to get to Lagos. We took the very first bus. No police check points, no waiting for food because it was early, no hold up, no go slow. Our driver is a young and good one. Our Bus is brand new making the journey smooth. We didn't meet any traffic till we entered Lagos where we spent the last one hour making the total journey five hours.
I was the one that called the Client when we got back to Lagos to inform him of our arrival back to Lagos. He claimed he was still sleeping and all. Later on he sent me samples of the bed he wanted for his Master's bedroom and so other furniture which were so above the initial discussed budget. So I told him, the price for the bed is 1/8 of your entire budget minus all other requirements he wanted, how do we make that kind of budget work. And he wanted this and that and more than what was agreed upon. So I told him he would have to up his budget or reduce the total number of rooms we will be working on which was reasonable. Things are expensive and we are not the ones selling most of these items. I can't possibly import all interior items needed for everything an Interior Decorating and Interior design entails. You know sometimes clients expect us to perform magic and they want us to do the impossible.
So after days of being at it, hours and hours of fine tuning the whole process again. Traveling down to Benin leaving my family and other work commitments. He came back with the story of family again. He said his mum said he should do the job small small and that he should manage because he is the major provider for their own family. Family again huh, I am not a snitch. But this client has been my friend for over six years even though we lost contact at some point. He couldn't continue with this same house project then due to a lot of selfish family expectations that made him abandon his personal project for more than four years and we are back at it again. Family matters got him hooked even with the fact that he is not married neither does he have any kid yet. 
Did I learn my lesson, yes I did. He later came up with the story of soon in the future that he would contact us again. So I told him my company isn't interested in any future dealings with him at all. It was the worst painful experience ever. Its any entrepreneur's nightmare.
Fast forward to early this year. He contacted us again and this time sounded so serious and we were convinced. He told me his budget and that we should travel down to Benin this time for the same project site inspection. He insisted on knowing my office and my house address. He even sent his friends to come and verify. Since I have nothing to hide, they came to my house and I even offered his friends the best wine I had in my store. So my personal assistant and carpenter was to travel down to Benin and this Client insisted I must be the one to make the trip. And gave so many reasons why I should be the one to come for the inspection. He promised he was going to make payments on we getting down to Benin after inspection so he doesn't trust any of my staffs
My carpenter and I left for Benin eventually. I even almost fainted on our way down to Benin because the journey was longer than I expected because we went by road. Since it was a journey of less than 6 hours. I could still manage. But it ended up taking us almost 7 hours and I didn't have breakfast because I left my house as early as 5 am to make the first bus.
We got to Benin and from the park to his house took us another 1 and half hours to get to the site. The site was at one of the newest areas of Benin towards the outskirts. We spent another 2 hours on the site taking detailed measurements and taking detailed pictures since it was an out of Lagos project.
We had to sleep in a cheap motel because the client claimed he forgot his wallet at home and I had limited cash on me. We even feed ourselves and paid for his own meals and he promised to refund. I didn't have any issues with that because I don't have any reasons to doubt him. We discussed the budget and we agreed on a budget giving all the preferences discussed on site. We got back to Lagos the following day. He promised to make payments on Monday which was two days time, we went on a weekend.
Our journey back to Lagos was so smooth. We spent just four hours to get to Lagos. We took the very first bus. No police check points, no waiting for food because it was early, no hold up, no go slow. Our driver is a young and good one. Our Bus is brand new making the journey smooth. We didn't meet any traffic till we entered Lagos where we spent the last one hour making the total journey five hours.
I was the one that called the Client when we got back to Lagos to inform him of our arrival back to Lagos. He claimed he was still sleeping and all. Later on he sent me samples of the bed he wanted for his Master's bedroom and so other furniture which were so above the initial discussed budget. So I told him, the price for the bed is 1/8 of your entire budget minus all other requirements he wanted, how do we make that kind of budget work. And he wanted this and that and more than what was agreed upon. So I told him he would have to up his budget or reduce the total number of rooms we will be working on which was reasonable. Things are expensive and we are not the ones selling most of these items. I can't possibly import all interior items needed for everything an Interior Decorating and Interior design entails. You know sometimes clients expect us to perform magic and they want us to do the impossible.
So after days of being at it, hours and hours of fine tuning the whole process again. Traveling down to Benin leaving my family and other work commitments. He came back with the story of family again. He said his mum said he should do the job small small and that he should manage because he is the major provider for their own family. Family again huh, I am not a snitch. But this client has been my friend for over six years even though we lost contact at some point. He couldn't continue with this same house project then due to a lot of selfish family expectations that made him abandon his personal project for more than four years and we are back at it again. Family matters got him hooked even with the fact that he is not married neither does he have any kid yet.
Did I learn my lesson, yes I did. He later came up with the story of soon in the future that he would contact us again. So I told him my company isn't interested in any future dealings with him at all. It was the worst painful experience ever. Its any entrepreneur's nightmare.
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