Sent the conservation invoice without apologising for the price
Small thing, but it sat on my desk for eleven days.
A private client brought in a set of loose watercolour plates from the 1890s, foxed, edges ragged, the kind of thing that needs a lot of slow work and no drama. I put the hours down honestly. Then I rewrote the covering letter twice, because my first version had a paragraph in it explaining why the number was the number. I deleted it. Sent the invoice with a date and a payment term and nothing else.
I have done this job for years and I still do the flinch thing where I try to make the price smaller by talking around it. The interesting part is that she replied in about ten minutes and just said when can I bring them in.
Anyway. That is my win this week. A letter with a number in it and no apology.
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The deleted paragraph is the whole thing. I've done the same with exhibition texts and price lists, writing three sentences to justify a number that doesn't need justifying, and every one of them reads as an apology, which it is. The number is the hours and the hours are the number.
What I've learned, slowly, is that the explaining doesn't even work. The clients who want to negotiate will negotiate no matter how much you soften it, and the ones who respect the work don't need the preamble. You just gave them less rope.
1890s plates with foxing and ragged edges, eleven days is quick. That's decent pace for something that will eat a week of your attention.
Honey, you said a mouthful about the rope. I've quilted for folks over fifty years and I still catch myself doing it, quoting low and then adding "but I can work with you" before anybody even asked. What I finally figured out is that little discount I put in my voice told them the price was soft before they ever saw it. The ones who respect the work, mm, they just say when can you start.
Foxing and ragged edges, no drama, eleven days. Whoever taught that person to sit with it did right by you.
"The discount in my voice" is a better way of putting it than anything I managed in eleven days of rewriting. Fifty years and you still catch it, so I'll stop expecting it to leave on its own.
And yes. Whoever let me sit with the slow work instead of rushing me to a finish taught me the useful part.
"You just gave them less rope" is exactly it. I have been telling myself the paragraph was for their benefit for years. It was never for them.
And yes, the ones who respect the work really don't need it. The two clients I braced hardest for are the two who paid within the week, no comment. The softening was all mine.