Real-Life Decision Making
You've been a professional organizer for more than a year. When you first decided to begin your business, Orderly Fashions, you weren't sure that it was what you wanted to do. You only knew that if you didn't try, then you would never know if it was the right business for you.
But in the time since you started the business, you've been happy with the decision you made. Seeing a customer's face when you finish organizing their office, garage or closets and having them tell you how much easier your work makes their lives is the reward that you hoped it would be.
Now, as you begin organizing a new client, you're confident that you can do a great job for him. And the first day at the client's office seems to reinforce that. Your client is excited about cleaning out the clutter and establishing some organization.
As you work through the piles of papers, books, mail and general junk, you have to decide what to keep and what is no longer needed. That's usually accomplished by consulting with your client about how frequently the item is used or what sentimental value it has.
By the end of the first day, you are starting to feel that your client isn't willing to let go of any of the clutter in his office. You've managed to separate a small pile of items to be tossed out or donated to a charitable organization.
The second day isn't much better. Your client insists that there is no way he can get rid of the clutter in his office. He needs everything that is there, and just wants you to organize it so he can find everything. When you try to explain that to control the clutter and keep it from happening again he will have to learn to let go of the items he doesn't need, your client gets upset.
You spend the day upset, too. Your work is to make others' lives easier and less stressful, not more stressful. By the third day, you're dreading going to the client's office. You know it's going to be a game of tug-of-war to get anything accomplished.
So when you first get to the office, you suggest that the client leave until you are finished.
The client refuses to even consider your proposition. He says he is fully prepared to let go of the things he doesn't need. But as you start the work, he's still fighting every item you want to throw out. Even old circulars that are expired!
During lunch, you turn the options over in you mind. You decide that you have two choices. You can either finish the job with the client, knowing that he'll never be happy with your services because he didn't allow you to do your work properly. Or you can walk away from the client, explaining that you don't think you are the person he needs for the job.
Both options have drawbacks. If you follow through with the job, you risk bad word-of-mouth advertising, and you'll likely have to hound the client to get paid. You're sure he won't be happy with the service, because for organization to be effective, the client has to be involved.
On the other hand, if you walk away you definitely won't get paid, and what the client tells others, your potential customers, probably won't be nice either. But you've chosen to be an organizer because you want to make people's lives easier. You're just not convinced that's what you are doing for this client.
What do you do?