My latest Info-Entrepreneur Tip of the Month looks at consequences of not managing clients' expectations regarding what you will be delivering.
One of the most challenging parts of running any professional-services business is managing clients' expectations. We are delivering an intangible -- insights, information, analysis -- and we cannot anticipate what we will find when we first talk with a client. If we talk about the articles we will deliver or the charts we will complete, we are inviting our clients to judge us by quantity. If, instead, we talk about the insights we will provide, we frame the discussion around the value we bring. [...]