All posts with the ‘ problem solving ’ Tag

Have you ever described a difficult negotiation by saying:

“They’re being unreasonable.” or “I don’t know why they don’t care about fixing this.” or “They’re just jerks; that’s the problem.”

If you answered “yes” you may be suffering from a serious, but curable, condition known as conflictus conflatiitis.  … Read More

I got to teach a workshop at GeekGirlCon last weekend and had a lot of fun! I’m always a little bit nervous about the kind of crowd I’ll get at a convention; negotiation seminars aren’t usually what folks are looking for at a con.

I shouldn’t have worried; the GeekGirlCon crowd was awesome!

They came out in force and asked a ton of great … Read More

Alright, Freelancer, you wanna make a profit? Wanna see some good, cold, hard latinum filling out that bank account of yours? Then you have to follow the Rules!

The Rules of Acquisition have guided the business dealings of the Ferengi for centuries. They are time tested and profit approved.

And if you think I’m joking, you’re crazy. While I might not endorse all of Quark… Read More

Last month I posted a piece about what to do when clients are awful. Turns out lots of people like advice on how to deal with crappy client situations! So this week, I’m taking submissions from The World’s Longest Invoice tumblr and suggesting what you can do to avoid similar non-payment crises.… Read More

You can plan a negotiation to the T, being careful to consider your interests and options, investing time to understand the other party and their needs, even making sure you have a few back up plans ready to go should things not work out.

You can do all of these things, and more, only to have the entire negotiation go cattywampus because of a last … Read More

There’s been a lot of talk recently about how freelancing and independent art “should” work. From discussions about intellectual property rights, to ethical business practices, to dealing with clients who don’t pay their bills, it seems that everyone has an opinion on how it “should” be and there’s not a lot of agreement on how to get there.

These conversations are important because they have … Read More

You’re negotiating.

You’ve prepared, thought about your interests, studied up on the other side, and asked open ended questions to elicit helpful information.

And it is sucking. Hard.

The other side is being jerkish, and every time you try to steer the conversation to problem solving, they drive right back to arguing over details.

You are now trapped in a back and forth about shaving … Read More

This week’s Good Advice question comes from that murky period of time before you start hashing out details of a job — the “Are you available?” time period. Your availability, or lack thereof, is just as valuable as the cash you can make from the job, but is often a lot harder to negotiate.… Read More