Vox Fortis Communications

Before we get to the second lesson in the puppy SEO series, I had an epiphany while I was traveling this past week about creature comforts.

I am pathetically addicted to electronics. Save for a novel of some sort, when I travel there are some items guaranteed to be in my carry-on bag (which won’t include anything liquid related thanks to the brain children of Homeland Security…I use expensive crap on my hair and already learned that lesson the hard way): ye olde Nintendo DS (with a copy of Yoshi’s Island or a Kirby title, since you’re curious about the levels of my immaturity), the iPod, and my laptop.

Of course, all of these things require electricity. And you know what? No friggin’ airline has the same way of providing power, if at all. I considered getting this, but then read up on the airline I was taking only to find out that basically….you get no power to your seat, fool. You will be confined to a 5-6 hour cross-country flight, sweating as your battery meters peters out to nothingness.

What does this have to do with anything, other than me being a high-maintenance nerd? I’ll tell you what.

Earlier in the week I met with a new group that has presented a really awesome partnership opportunity for me. Ironically, the president and I are alums from the same company, though at different times. He’s refreshingly together (you deal with enough business owners who have no clue what’s going on or what they want, and you appreciate the ones who have their act together) but at one point he said something like, “I’m sorry, I know I’m structured, it’s left over from corporate America.”

I never expect clients to do anything differently than what they’re comfortable with. It’s the creature comfort factor. Maybe I’m a flexible person by nature, but I’ve heard some horror stories come from clients about freelancers they’ve worked with. Yes, we all need to set boundaries from freaky extremists to keep our lives sane, but part of being in business for yourself means giving clients what they need and what they’re comfortable with. It’s a fine line, and you will certainly find employers/clients that will push the boundary.

Be reasonable. Don’t force feed clients things they’re obviously not comfortable with. Working with a lot of freelancers can make people who need your expertise feel like me when trying to find an airline power source: no two are ever the same, and they don’t want to spend money on something if it’s not gonna work. Being flexible and reasonable is something that takes practice and negotiation. Hopping a cross-country flight isn’t exactly part of my normal day, and it came sooner than I thought it would, but the bottom line was that a group I work with needed me to do it. It’s a group I thoroughly enjoy working with and am already learning so much from, so that’s a movable boundary in my world. They’re knee deep into a campaign, and didn’t want to run outta juice for their DS.

So, that was my mini-epiphany for the week as I grumbled my way through the headache that the world of travel has become. That, and in general, flying sucks…but I can’t think of a snappy way to equate to working for yourself, so this is what you get.

For more on being what your clients need, check out this entry. And if you still are liking what you see, subscribe to me.