So you need to charge more money. (I already mentioned charging more money in fact – but never explained how.)

It’s almost a given that people need to be willing to pay you more, as well. That much is obvious. And that’s the real question here: how to get your customers to pay you more – willingly.

It’s simple. Not easy, mind you – but simple. You need to do work that demands more money. Your finished work needs to say to the customer, “Hey man – I’m awesome. You know it. And I ain’t cheap.”

I know someone who embodies this. He’s a general contractor, and presently he’s not only very much in-demand in my city but he’s also not “cheap”. If you’re a penny-pincher, and you’re watching your budget, and you would do the work yourself if you only knew how…well, he’s not the guy to call. Because he charges more money than other contractors that purport to do the same work.

But remember: he has no shortage of work. And, you will not find him in the phone book or listed in the paper under “Handymen”. He hands out cards to his clients…and they tend to pass those on to their friends. (Their rich friends!)

My contractor friend can do this because he made a decision a few years after starting his business: he would only do top-notch work, and insist on using high-quality materials. He did that, and met resistance from customers. He had only a few jobs at first, but his attention to detail and pride in his work paid off, because he started getting business from people who saw his handiwork in their friends’ homes.

Now, years later, he’s built up a reputation as an honest contractor who does the best work in the city. And he can charge what he’s worth.

So how do you charge more? Do work that’s worth more and demand what you’re worth. It will come.

It was probably two years ago when something happened that taught me this lesson; I supposed I would have agreed with you (before that) had you told me: “Shawn, never do things that are under-handed. Playing dirty is unacceptable.” I would have said, “Yeah, you’re right; ok.” But I’d never had to experience what that really meant. Until one day, at my new job.

Someone, somewhere, a person who wouldn’t reveal themself, was harrasing my boss and the employees. We were receiving mocking, critical emails about our websites. We saw intrusion attempts on other sites we ran. We looked for evidence, and we found a suspect in a previous unhappy (“disgruntled” I think is the word most often used for these people) employee who was fired.

I won’t go into how we knew…but we knew. Too many things pointed to this specific person as the culprit. This person even emailed one of our people to ask how a website was doing, as if a website needed checking-up on. That website was the same one we found compromised a short time previously.

So naturally, I was incensed (“pissed” is a word often used for how I felt). I looked up this person, and found a blog entry that attacked my place of employment and, on a personal level, attacked my employer. So…I decided to go black hat on ‘em. I spammed the search engine results every which way, and knocked him out of the top ten for his own name.

I thought it was kinda funny. My coworkers couldn’t believe it. My office had no idea such a thing was even possible. And then I felt bad about doing it.

It turned out that the “victim” (depending on how you define or look at the situation) also noticed, and through some luck of his own found out who I was. I let it go, having pulled the brakes on the industrial-strength torrent of new search results I had introduced a few days previous, and the thing corrected itself.

He had his search results back for his name in a few days.

But all did not end well: I ended up pissing off (even further) someone who had shown evidence already that he was at least a bit unstable and/or vengeful, and I had sullied my own reputation. I had made an enemy, whereas I previously had zero enemies. I’d done something that made me feel awful – regardless of who knew or didn’t know about it.

It wasn’t worth it, from any angle.

Thinking about this recently, it came to me as a clear lesson: never play dirty. It’s a simple rule, but until you’ve learned it firsthand…you might not really understand it. In other words, there are reasons for this rule.

In business, this is abundantly evident. I saw how it played out in the eco-system of my city and its tiny website community and the people who are a part of it. And I learned why we shouldn’t do things like that. Good thing, too – because “business” is just a small version of life. The way we run our businesses and work with others is a microcosm – a small version – of the way we live. You can’t separate the “business you” from the “real” you by very much.

Are you a “dirty” person? Hopefully not. No one wants to be labeled that way. If you’re not, then do business in a clean fashion. It’s a reflection of who you really are.

Never play dirty.

In no particular order…

1. You don’t have to be rich, but it’s necessary to have enough. Deprivation and poverty aren’t anyone’s idea of success. The key is to be satisfied with enough and make wise financial decisions. Think before you buy; learn to control your “wanter.” Remember, too, that the direction you are going in is more important than where you have been.

2. Have meaningful relationships. Many people work long and hard at their careers or running a business. If only this much effort goes into their relationships with the people who matter! Learn to communicate. Say the things you should say. Make time for people. Make memories with people.

3. Be benevolent. Volunteer. Mentor. Invest your time and money in something you believe in. People who are involved in humanitarian causes are more satisfied and have an easier time seeing the big picture.

4.  Be trustworthy.  Keep your word; honor your commitments.  Then people will respect and honor you.  This is key in having a successful life.

5. Live on purpose.  Too many people live without thinking and end up somewhere they do not want to be because they neglected to think about what they really wanted.  Too many commitments, the wrong career,  wasted time and money- all because they never stopped to consider why and what they were doing.  Live consciously.  Periodically evaluate your life and then make adjustments.

6. You need time.  Everything in our life takes time.  Many people never get around to doing the important things because they were too busy.

Success is living a satisfying, fulfilling, meaningful life. In all aspects. Balance.

A successful man must dress the part.

Of course it should go without saying that a successful lady should dress for success as well, but I have to address the men here. For one thing, I am a man so I’m able to address the problems I see with men. The second thing is there are some major problems with men’s dress these days! (Ladies, not so much. Many of you look great.)

The specific problem with men is that they appear like boys or slobs. But rarely do they dress like they should dress. I’m thinking of business settings right now, but in general society today, men dress horribly.

For a while now I’ve become reluctant to wear a baseball cap (I have a couple). When I wear one, I feel like I should be holding my mommy’s hand – men shouldn’t wear baseball caps unless they’re playing baseball, pretty much. And now that I look around and see grown men wearing them, it seems wrong.

For some contrast, take a look at almost any Hollywood movie made up until the early sixties and you’ll see how a real hat changes a man’s appearance. So, I say we bring back the hat. Personally, I like fedoras or trilbys or flat caps. But not a ballcap, unless the occasion calls for mowing the lawn or throwing a ball.

I recently went to a meeting of many hospitality/hotel/restaurant workers and business owners. At this gathering, I saw a lot of bad fashion among men. Lots of ill-fitting polos with embroidered logos, and lots of short-sleeved button-up shirts paired with clip-on ties. But there were a few guys who stood out – for all the right reasons! They wore distinguished-looking tan suits and leather shoes – what you would expect a Southern businessman to wear back in the old days, almost.

Scanning the crowd, I could pick out the guys who were dressed well and the shlubs. (And a lot of attractive ladies as well, but that’s not what I’m talking about here.) It was like there were a bunch of Dwight Schrutes, and a handful of Don Drapers.

Who do you think is going to get the business, and make the money? The guy who is dressed as if he cares.

I’ve never considered myself a slob, but the whole observation made me realize how it’s actually very important to present yourself well – no matter how “shallow” or just plain wrong that may be. It’s the reality of the business world. And if you plan on being successful, men, “act as if”. (See: Boiler Room).

That means you need to look the part. So let’s do it.

“Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.”

- Charles Caleb Colton

You may have heard this quote before, and I’ve seen it mis-quoted as

imitation is the greatest form of flattery.

The idea is that by imitating a company, you are paying them a compliment. It could also mean you are trying to show them a better way to do something – and often, the imitator really does know more or do it better.

But how does all this relate to business? Here’s another quote that might be more apropos:

“Good artists copy; great artists steal.”
- Pablo Picasso

If you want to make money at something, you can either be a great innovator or a great thief – but most likely you’ll be a little of both. If you look at all the great business leaders of the day, you’ll see that they took an existing idea and improved upon it’s original purpose or implementation.

Want an example? Apple is a prime example (Steve Jobs, specifically). There are many “improved” products from this company, but the most obvious is the iPod. MP3 players were around for quite some time before Apple decided to take all the best ideas, simplify them, and package all the existing ideas into a sleeker (sexier!) package. It became a best-seller.

There’s really nothing new under the sun (to quote Solomon). What sells is when you do the same thing as everyone else…better. Or make it seem new. It happens in everything from music (remember when Nirvana became popular?) to coffee (Starbucks) to clothing (styles often come back when a designer “refreshes” a look).

So what can you do? Stop trying to think of totally new concepts, and – instead – think of something that already exists and see if you can do anything to either…

• make it lookfresher
• make it sound fresher
• make it seem exotic
• make it more exclusive
• make it do more

It can simply become a matter of combining the functions of two or more products. Or, it could be a matter of simplifying a product to do only one thing – but do it well. (37signals is the master of doing this.)

So, next time you think “I should make one of those. I can do it better…” remember: Imitation is the greatest form of flattery.