Back when the dotcom bubble burst and times started to get tough, just like they are now, I decided to take a year out from contracting to travel in the Far East. I learned some valuable lessons on the way, especially how to avoid making costly mistakes.
Of course, being a contractor, it was possible for me to take such a break without any of the baggage of taking time away from employment. Because I’d been earning well and stashing away the cash, I was able to take the trip in some style. And I did it tax efficiently too, as I was living off a previous year’s earnings!
When I got to Vietnam, I needed a haircut. The chap who rented me my motorbike took me to his brother’s establishment. He negotiated a rate of 50,000 dong – about a fiver – which I was happy with, and his brother then proceeded to butcher my hair with all the care, and none of the skill, of a sheep shearer at the end of a 12-hour shift.
Back at the hotel, whilst calming my nerves with a much-needed drink, I got talking to a fellow traveller. As you do, we both recounted our day’s experience. It turned out he’d also had a haircut, which not only looked considerably more professional than mine, but had also only cost him 5,000 dong, a tenth of what I’d paid!
Did I march back to the motorbike man and demand that he hand me back his nine-fold mark-up? Or did I head back to the barber and insist on a refund for a haircut that would have failed a trade’s description test in the UK?
No. I swallowed my pride and chalked that one up to experience, having paid just a few dongs over the odds. Of course I realised I should have asked around and found out what the market rate for a haircut was in that part of Vietnam, and done some basic research into who I’d let loose on my hair!
Actually, I had more than a little admiration for the sales job that the motorbike man had done on me. He’d recognised my lack of market knowledge and acted accordingly.
Losing a few quid on the deal meant little to me, and it was a small price to pay to make me realise how exactly the same kind of thing regularly happens to unwary contractors. Because contractors who don’t do their homework are at risk of their agent negotiating themselves a whopping margin.
So the next time you think you’ve come off worse in a negotiation with an agent, ask yourself how you could have prepared yourself and negotiated better. Just as I did in Vietnam, and when I accepted my first contract on poor terms some twelve years ago, you may find the fault is your own. You certainly can’t blame the good salesperson who sold you the contract at the rate you accepted.
Older and wiser, I now know what to pay for a haircut in Vietnam, and have used my experiences to write the Contractors’ Handbook. This has a section on advanced sales and negotiation techniques, specifically for when the agent or client starts to get tough and thought they saw you coming.
Invest in your contracting skills and you won’t be done over like a dong!