Hey...who's running this show?!

Next week a client is coming in town and has asked me to set up various meetings. One of the meetings they asked me to set up was with a powerful legislator from the opposite party. I don't believe in trying to pretend I'm something that I'm not, so when the client asked me to work on setting up the meeting, I said I'd be happy to do so, but it's a difficult meeting to arrange for even those who are this legislator's friends, and I'm not one who falls in that category.

I just feel like I need to be honest and up-front with the client, even if it ultimately means they go to another firm. I'm not going to promise anything I can't deliver or pretend I'm someone with every important relationship in the Statehouse. I suppose that could be one advantage of having a larger firm, but I continue to believe there are trade-offs for big firm versus little firm.

In any event, apparently my client called someone else and got the meeting set up. I feel kind of awkward about the whole thing, but it's not that I don't have relationships on the other side of the aisle, it's just that I didn't have this one. So here they are, this out-of-state company who has relationships in our fair state and can get meetings done that I can't. Well, I think I could've eventually gotten the meeting, but I probably would've needed more lead time.

Oh, and I don't think I mentioned it previously, but I picked up another client last week. I'm not up to three clients. Woo-hoo! Sure was not fun at the beginning of the year, since there were a couple of companies who said they wanted to hire me, but then backed out once I actually made the leap on my own.

In fact, one of those companies still calls me to help them with stuff, but I believe those days of free lunches are officially over. I could probably hold a grudge at a few folks, but why bother. My business is growing and I couldn't be happier...until I pick up another client!