Hiring Church Members
I’m sitting here at Atlanta Bread Company having my breakfast, reading emails, and catching up on my unread items in my feed reader, and there is a couple sitting next to me with a web design representative discussing the possibility of hiring her firm to design their new website.
I don’t generally eavesdrop on people, but they are talking loud and clear and it’s hard to not hear what they’re saying. I’m particularly interested in their conversation because I do freelance web design and custom Wordpress Theme development.
When they first arrived, she asked them to explain their previous experience with web designers. The couple (who runs a small building contracting business) said the first time they attempted to build a website, they decided to hire a family member (I believe they said a nephew) who was right out of college and looking to get his feet wet. They paid him $1000. BIG mistake!!!!
I didn’t even need to hear the rest, because nearly every time you hire your friends, family members, church members, etc., you end up regretting it. This is exactly what happened with this couple. He designed a crappy looking site, and eventually the domain name expired and they lost everything (not that there was much to lose).
I’ve both hired people from church, and been hired by people from church. I can honestly say that it’s not something I ever plan on doing again. It has never turned out all that good for me.
It’s interesting, why do the worst clients/contractors seem to come from churches? Shouldn’t we be the best clients? Shouldn’t we be the best contractors?
Cory and I have made it a priority to be the best designers we can be. We want to make sure that, because we both have blogs that clearly show that we are Christians, we always attempt to give the clients the best user experience we can. We’re not just trying to make money, but we are also very much in the full time business of representing Jesus.
A lady once told me that she hired someone from within her church to do some roof work on her house. Unfortunately, the person she hired was related to the pastor. Needless to say, he never finished the job, and they couldn’t do anything about it.
My recommendation, don’t hire anyone from within your church to do personal work for you. You’ll end up regretting it.
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Amen!
I agree with the above statement a little bit. I am a business owner (Video production/editor). I have made it my goal to live by my word and have integrity. I have waited so long to start my business because I wanted give quality work. I have done it for years, I have training and all. My past work has been looked at as good work, but I knew I had more potential with more quality equipment. I have made the choice to invest and I would say – I live by word and the statement of “Who I am and Who I represent are Important, So INTEGRITY is KEY”
SO I get business from my family, church members and I look forward to get more.
I don’t want to be one of those with the bad rep… “Churh folks are cheap, Church folks to shabby work, Church folks don’t keep their word.. so on so on.”
SO I must say, I know some folks in the church that are shabby and shady and I refuse to be one of them.
I will be prosperous, because it’s Jesus who I represent. I hope more folks choose this as their focus, or shut their business down.