The Spoils Of Reputation #

Earning a reputation is very easy, just do things that makes people talk about you. The hard part is having a positive one. Even harder yet is to maintain it.

It’s hard to earn a positive reputation, delivering work that’s at least as good as the premium brands without the ability to charge that much. Depending on the release cycle of the product or the delivery time of the service it can go from a few months to a few years until the positive reputation is built. At the beginning, it is hard to even find the critical mass required to have the opportunity to even start building a reputation.

What makes keeping a positive reputation harder than earning is that eventually, on a long period of time, there will be conflicting moments where doing the right thing will be so expensive that taking an alternative route and damaging the reputation will look like the best option in the moment.

Not being aware of this period of time and thus not planning how to properly mange the envy that naturally comes from seeing someone else getting more for the same results will make anyone grow bitter and bitter everyday until the inevitable shortcut is taken and the reputation is ruined forever. Greed is a strong emotion and makes anyone become short sighted.

On the bright side, a positive reputation is like having a good friend be present at each conversations about the service, product or the business overall. It transforms the business into the default go to place earning repeating business from customers, customer referrals to their friends and attracts new customers to take a chance.

The first few transactions should be treated as an opportunity to have a chance at doing more business. That’s where and when you can ask for more than just a mark-up on the materials or the hourly rate for the work. The real money is made on providing peace of mind.