A lesson I almost learned the hard way!

Years ago, while running my construction company, I learned one of the biggest lessons of my business life.

I had received a lead from one of the lead generation companies I used on a regular basis and after reading through the scope of work, I decided that I wasn't going to contact this potential client, as the type of work that he desired didn't really fall within my area of expertise.  We could technically do the work but I just didn't feel that my guys were proficient enough, so I left it at that.  A couple of days passed and I received a phone call from the client asking if we could meet that next Saturday.  We set up a time to meet and what happened next is actually quite embarassing.  My wife and I were driving around town that Saturday when my phone rang...it was that customer asking me if we had an appointment.  I had totally blown him off and decided that I was just going to skip the bid, something I had never done before.  I apologized to him and agreed to meet him the next day.  That next day changed my outlook on business forever.  After meeting with him for about 10 minutes, he told me that he wanted to hire me to do the entire remodel.  I guess he liked me, because I hadn't even given him a price to do the work!  

Fast forward a couple of years...I ended up doing two different remodels for this same customer, a complete remodel for his mom, and a bunch of other jobs for various friends and family that ended up producing over a year and a half of work!  Talk about an eye opening experience. 

Yesterday, I received a note from a friend telling me that he wanted to check out a $50,000 investment property in San Bernadino.  Not that big of a commission?  Give me a year and a half and I'll get back to you...