I’m at WordCamp Europe in Sofia - taking rough notes on some of the talks
How come every time I get stabbed in the back, my fingerprints are on the knife?
Jenny Beaumont http://2014.europe.wordcamp.org/session/jenny-beaumont/
- Your business plan might be fine, but are you prepared for when things go horribly wrong?
- When bad things happen we’re ultimately responsible
- “Taking responsibility can be a blessing as well as a burden”
- “It’s up to you to not only choose who you work with, but to devise communicate and enforce the rules of your profession”
- This is about being professional.
- You need to be in charge, not the client
- You don’t know what’s going on with the client - they may be taking out on you something going on with their personal life
- “Sometimes people are dicks” :) need to blow off steam sometimes
- “People don’t always read the fine print” or even the large print. Or contracts. Rather than getting frustrated by this, we need to recognise that it’s a thing and deal with it.
- Don’t just assume it’s been read and absolve responsibility - you need to continuously reinforce things throughout a project
- “You can’t change people or their behaviour: you can only change your own”
- Audience question - how do you filter out clients who you shouldn’t be working with
- Answer - it’s tricky. Ask a lot of questions
- Audience question - how much do you bend your rules when times are tough and you can’t afford to turn work away
- Really tricky. No good answer. Communicate a LOT. Let your clients know that you’re needy: you’ll need a lot from them - particularly availability for communication.