The Time Jamie's Client Refused to Pay His Total Bill

0:00 Forged Alaska.

0:01 I love thinking about like where you came up

0:03 with this and I picture you somewhere outside of Anchorage,

0:06 really cold, and being like, "Forged Alaska." Forged Alaska says,

0:09 "I recently watched the test video where

0:11 you repaired a Savage Industries apron." Yeah, that was really fun.

0:15 Uh, and I realized that you do leather work.

0:17 What person or project got you interested in leather

0:20 working as a skill to add to your repertoire?

0:22 Um, the very first project that made me realize, okay, it was a belt.

0:30 It was a belt.

0:31 It was fixing a It was first actually, no, it was punching a hole in a belt.

0:36 I was a kid.

0:38 I don't remember losing weight, but I I don't think that's what happened.

0:42 But I put on a belt that was too big for me.

0:43 And someone showed me that there was that all on a Swiss Army knife,

0:46 and you could use it to make a hole in the leather.

0:50 And It's hard to overestimate how much making

0:55 a hole in something is remarkable to a kid.

0:59 Seriously, I remember when we first got to shop class.

1:03 Do high schools still have shop classes?

1:06 They probably don't, but in my shop class in seventh grade, seventh grade.

1:10 So, we are third 12 years old.

1:13 They're letting us use drill presses.

1:15 And I remember someone took a quarter and drilled a hole through the quarter.

1:19 We were all like, "Ah!" Our heads were exploding.

1:22 We didn't know you could drill holes through quarters.

1:25 Um, but eventually for a costume,

1:32 I took a piece of leather and I cut it down to make

1:36 a belt because I realized that leather was just cut with scissors or, you know,

1:41 more precise cutting tools and hole punched.

1:43 And yeah, I could sort of see the moment

1:46 I p punched a hole in leather with an all,

1:49 I understood that the that leather work is this is

1:54 one of those skills where the threshold to entry is low,

1:59 but the level of skill you can learn and demonstrate is incredibly high.

2:05 So some things like playing the piano have a high threshold to entry

2:10 to get like something useful out of the practice of playing the piano.

2:15 Um and I'm a fan of those crafts or those skills with a much

2:20 lower threshold to entry because and I

2:24 talked about bookbinding as one of these, right?

2:27 Like book binding can be as deep as you want it to go or you can grab

2:34 a stapler and make a little a little zen

2:37 and the world has greatly benefited from all from Z.

2:41 All right, that that's an important cultural moment.

2:44 Um, and so I've always really liked leather work as a way of like again one

2:55 of those skills with a low threshold to entry

2:57 and a high reward for what you are making.

3:02 Um, leather work uh rewards patience.

3:06 It rewards being meticulous.

3:10 It's a marvelous crafting skill.

3:12 And again, you know, the threshold to entry can be incredibly low.

3:16 You can go to the thrift store

3:18 and buy a crappy leather jacket for your supplies.

3:22 Actually, that's a way that's actually the first time

3:24 I made uh I made the Indiana Jones Grail Diary.

3:28 The covers were an old worn out brown leather jacket because I was like,

3:32 I'm never going to find a better worn out leather

3:34 than the worn out leather of a brown leather jacket.

3:38 just tried to make it says,

3:43 "What do you do when your customer tells you that you need to get their project

3:46 done in two weeks instead of the four

3:49 weeks you agreed to?" I having a freak out.

3:54 Yeah, bet you're having a freak out.

3:56 Okay, just trying to make it such a good username.

4:03 the client.

4:04 You bid a job that is a four-week job

4:09 and now the client says they want it in two weeks.

4:12 I'm assuming this all starting right about now.

4:16 So, it's not like you've put in a week

4:17 of work and now they want it done in three weeks.

4:19 They want it done in two weeks.

4:20 So, they want it done in half the time.

4:22 Um, a the standard the bog standard rush fee is 100%.

4:31 uh added on.

4:33 So that's a standard rush fee is just double.

4:38 But let's talk about your freakout.

4:44 The first question, and the most important one is, is it even possible?

4:50 Is it even possible to take this four-week build and do it in two weeks?

4:55 If it's not, then you can stop freaking out and you can just explain

5:00 to your client exactly how long it will take and that's how long it will take.

5:04 That's that's that's just like, you know, no one likes getting bad news,

5:08 but if the only thing you can give is bad news, then give it quickly.

5:13 Um, so let's just say it is possible

5:19 to complete this four-week job in two weeks.

5:22 Uh, but it requires a lot of extra people.

5:25 Okay.

5:25 Well, first of all, start by back up a second.

5:33 Um, let's make sure that the client isn't telling you, "Oh,

5:37 I always only said two weeks because that also happens." Um,

5:41 let's just assume that the client has said

5:44 that thing that was going to take four weeks, I now need it to happen in two.

5:48 Because someone coming to you to say that may tell you they

5:50 don't have more money but they will find it when they need it.

5:56 Uh and there's only so much you can do.

5:59 You are under no the moment they change the parameters I want

6:03 to tell you you're under no responsibility to do an impossible thing for them.

6:09 Um the questions for you is how can you make what they want possible?

6:14 is uh for some clients the rush is the rush and money is not an issue.

6:20 Um I at one point did a job where I knew

6:24 that they had gotten several other people to bid on it and they

6:27 only had six days left and I also knew that they weren't

6:30 going to really probably find anyone after they were talking to me.

6:34 And so I doubled the fee and I looked

6:36 at it and I was like that's still not enough.

6:38 And I added another 30%.

6:40 Because like I just knew the market at that point.

6:42 And I'm like, this is the number they're expecting for something like this.

6:46 Um, so let us assume it is possible.

6:51 Let us assume that the client is

6:54 aware that they're changing the parameters on you.

6:58 Then your job is to figure out how many people you need to hire,

7:04 uh, how much materials you need,

7:06 what kind of delivery fees you're going to encounter.

7:08 All the driving and your time matters.

7:10 Maybe you need an assistant to help you run the logistics of this.

7:14 All of those expenses,

7:16 put them on a list and add them up in addition to your double the fee.

7:22 And that's where you start talking to the client about money.

7:26 Like that's the bare minimum.

7:28 And you also still need to make a profit.

7:30 So, you know, you're going to tack 10% on.

7:33 And again, they might you might say, "Look, I need to spend hell.

7:38 I need to spend and like move heaven and earth to get

7:42 this done in two weeks and there's contingencies I don't even know about.

7:46 Um, all of those are reasonable things to say to a client.

7:51 If the client is changing the parameters,

7:53 you don't have to freak out unless you somehow are

7:57 conscripted into delivering this in half the time without compensation.

8:02 Um, and again, for a four-week job that has to be delivered in two weeks,

8:08 companies spend ungodly sums of money on things like this.

8:12 God, we have visited where Fortune 5 companies have set up uh, you know,

8:16 spent $100,000 for like a set that's going

8:19 to be used for an interview for a few hours.

8:22 Yeah, there's like money gets spent when it needs to get spent.

8:26 Do not feel bad about charging what it takes to get their job done.

8:35 Don't feel Don't let anyone make you feel bad

8:39 about charging what it takes to get a job done.

8:43 Yeah.

8:44 I just trying to make it.

8:46 Will you pipe in next week and tell me

8:48 or in a couple weeks and tell me how this job went?

8:50 I'm fascinated and I'm pissed off at your client.

8:54 That's a tricky one, man.

8:55 You know, clients change things all the time.

8:57 I remember Jamie once spent like months and months

9:00 and months make making a set of trophies

9:02 for this guy who was a friend of his for this thing that they were doing.

9:07 And when the job was finished and Jamie submitted the final bill,

9:11 which included California tax because that's something you charge

9:15 that it's something you as a business owner get charged,

9:17 so you better charge your customers.

9:19 And that client, a friend of Janies, was like,

9:21 "Uh, I don't I don't remember the tax,

9:25 so I'm just not gonna pay it." And it's like,

9:30 "So, you're just screwing your friend out of dough this?" Yeah.

9:34 Um, just trying to make it good luck, man.

9:37 I really I really hope that works out for you.

9:41 Thank you for watching.

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