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03/14/2006: "How the Time Wasters Can Eat Away at Your Career and Cost You Dearly."

There are lots of ways to waste your time. As a copywriter, you know that time is both your friend and your enemy. But the one thing time always will be is money. Time and skill are the things you have to offer in exchange for your fee. If you waste your time, you're literally throwing money away. In addition, you're losing minutes and hours you'll never get back.

Throughout my long career I've learned that the biggest time wasters in our business or any business is people. The longer you're in business and the more you become an expert, the more people will try and steal your time. They'll try and get you to give them free advice, free ideas. Before you know it you've lost hours on these free loaders.

I get lots of requests for quotes daily. Most of those never turn into business. So I've learned not to spend much time with any one prospective client --- either by e-mail or on the phone. I think it was Donald Trump who said that most deals never happen. Whoever said it said the truth. Most deals don't come about. So don't spend a lot of time on any one deal or any one person.

I have prepared answers to most of the requests for quotes I get. Most people want the same sort of copy. While I have several levels of service I know that most people want the cheapest plan they can get even if it's not the best. I also know that most people are just price shopping. Yes, that's stupid but they do it so accept it. They'll often settle on the cheapest copywriter they can find. They'll get screwed and eventually they'll have to hire someone like me to get them out of their mess.

The best way to arm yourself against time wasters is to have most of your common questions already answered. You can personalize them, of course. But you'll have most of it ready to go. Because you basically say the same thing to everyone who contacts you.

When people say they'll talk to someone and get back to you or they'll think about it and get back to you, forget it. They're already going on searching out a cheaper copywriter. You won't hear from them again. Don't waste time on people like that.

My name is mentioned in books from time to time and, as a result, I often get phone calls from people wanting free advice. I've learned to cut them off quickly by telling them that my advice is $200 per hour. You'd be surprised how quickly they stop wasting my time! While we live in a capitalist society, a good many people are socialist at heart. They honestly think they're entitled to all they can get absolutely free.

I used to spend a lot of time on people. I thought they were prospective clients. In reality, very few of the people who contact you become clients.

Don't give people much information. Don't give them information and ideas they should pay for. Tell them what you'll do for them and how much it will cost. Tell them why you're qualified to do what you say you'll do. But don't offer to give them a free this and a free that. People really don't value what they get for free. Oh, they want it. They'll take it. But they put no value on it. People value what they pay for.

Some people go from one copywriter to another asking questions and probing for ideas --- never paying. When they do pay, they take all these good ideas to a cheap copywriter and have him do the writing after the pros have given away all the top-drawer ideas. I long ago quit letting people use me up like this.

I find that the people who pay you the least or not at all will try and spend the most time on the phone taking up our time. I've learned to cut my phone time. I limit what I'll give any one person until they pay me. And even after they pay me they only get the time they pay for.

The world today is not the world of yesterday. The customer is NOT always right. And being good is not always being right. The vast majority of people are users.

I've found that the people who actually sign an agreement with me are people who know and appreciate my value and take the least of my time. They know and understand that they get what they pay for. They're true capitalists. Frankly, those are the only people I really want to spend time with.

William Shakespere in King Richard II Act V Scene V wrote, "I wasted time, and now doth time waste me."

Don't let people waste your valuable time.

Jim Rohn said, "Time is our most valuable asset, yet we tend to waste it, kill it and spend it rather than invest it."

The users, the time wasters, are more than welcome to contact other copywriters. In fact, I hope they do. I value my time. And I expect others to value it as well. And so should you.