It was early in the project there, the first year of what would stretch into a five year job. But I didn't know that then. We were working on a series of small jobs which were bid one little contract at a time.

I bid a relatively small job. We were to put a new face on a fountain. I was busy and didn't put enough time into the bid.

We got to the job and suddenly it was much bigger than I had remembered it. Three days into a 'two week job' I knew we were in trouble.

So I went to my employer and had a talk. I explained how I had underbid the job horribly and wanted to discuss it with him. He sat there smiling ( he really liked the price I had given him), but he almost fell out of his chair when I told him what we wanted to do.

I told him I didn't expect him to change the price. A bid was a bid. Instead, I wanted free reign to do the job BETTER than we bid. I explained we had no hope of making money on the job and so 'we wanted to create one for our portfolio'. The pictures we would take of the finished job were going to be all we would make on the job and I wanted them to be fabulous.

We didn't discuss future work or what I might want down the road. It wasn't about any of that. It was about doing this job right.

He said go.

So we pulled the stops out and went for it. The crew knew what we were doing. I didn't ask for any concessions from them either, but I did ask them to put their heart into the job. (they always did this anyway)

Well, five weeks later, the two week job was done. It turned out fabulous! And the pictures look great in the portfolio. Without the pressures of trying to salvage some profit, we instead concentrated on being creative.

I think at that point I and the crew turned a major corner in what we could do creatively.

Our company did 'lose' about 10K on the job. Or did we?

The next week my boss at the mall called me up to the big office. They didn't even mention the fountain as we discussed future contracts. Instead we signed a major deal worth $400K that would last us 7-8 months. (we did that one on time)

Everybody underbids a job from time to time. I still do occasionally.

What do you do then?

-dan
 

What a wonderful story about moving past limitations and discovering something new and unexpected. I appreciate you for sharing this experience and outcome. I sincerely believe that there are times when we need to push outside our normal path in order to find out what we are capable of.

I once worked very late to complete a drag race car. It was a soup to nuts job, with gold leaf and all. So it's 1 am and I'm very tired, and I write the bill forgetting to add the cost of the gold leaf (there was no quote on the job). The customer wrote the check, and I headed home.

Part way home, I realized that I had shortchanged myself. I called him the next day and told him what happened. He said "no problem" and sent a check for the balance.

For me, this was a turning point, because I had often tended to charge less than I was worth, and previously would have blamed myself for the error and ate the loss. I am now much better at getting all the money, and feeling more satisfied both creatively and financially.

Bruce Deveau