How to Win Any Job on eLance, oDesk or Guru.com

Great advice.. I think this can be applied to any job you are applying for. Jobs you find on this Job board, Krop.com, AuthenticJobs.com.. anywhere. Show you are confident in your skills and act like you are the best at what you do. If you don’t have that attitude it will show up in your replies and inquiries into new leads.

With the phone contact comment, I wonder how you deal with overseas providers? For example, if I say to you “I am located in Madrid, Spain, feel free to call me on +34-xxx-xxx-xxx”, would that negatively prejudice your decision on who to hire?

I ask because I’m new to freelancing and do tend not to advertise my physical location. I believe this is prudent because a) some people assume it means I’m not a native English speaker (I am) and b) they’re afraid that any problems would lead to expensive phone calls in the middle of the night – hence I prefer IM / email contact methods as these cost the client nothing (and I’ve yet to let down the client in such a way that instant telephone communication is necessary, though I do make my number available to them).

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this.

Hi Michelle,

As a newbie writer, this is indeed very helpful tips. I just started in Odesk actually.. It took 2-3 weeks before I managed to get my first project.

Thanks..

Cheers,

Miles

Hello, good advice. Some time ago as i was hunting for jobs on these websites i added offers with much higher (but realistic) prices than others have already offered. In a personal message i wrote a small suggestion which solution i could imagine. 90% of all customers contacted me asking why the price is so high – then we discussed topics like performance, security, … and i asked them to discuss this with the other. In more than 75% of all offers i was chosen – for the full price. So i can say: be cheaper than the others or much more expensive

These are great tips. Often, I wonder what employers are looking for in a freelancer. Your pointers are certainly enlightening!

Good advice indeed, it makes me rethink my approach to contacting employers lately. However, where do you draw the line between confidence and arrogance? That’s always a shady area for me and I’m anxious about tooting my own horn too loudly. Which is more of a deterrant, to be arrogant or humble?

These are great tips for applying for any job really. This stems much further past freelancers and is good relevant business advice.

Nice set of tips Mitchell…. It can be really useful for me few years back.

This is great! Surely is a helpful blog post!

Seems like common sense to me. I pretty much follow that format (apart from the subject line thing as you’re usually required to bid on the site) but I certainly wouldn’t say that it guarantees getting the job.

The only way that you’ll ever win ANY job on those bidding sites is to work for minimum wage or less.

Great tips. I usually have little faith in the opposing end, so I put little effort into winning any if at all from those sites. It’s hard to bid on a complete website with shopping cart for $200!!!

” 100% money back guarantee if not satisfied for any reason”

That’s rather an advise for going bankrupt then for getting jobs.

I think I have finally gotten to the point that I need to unsubscribe from this blog for a while, I read blog entries about “free time” and now, a blog entry that really needs editing. Is there a way that this blog entry could be edited and my comment deleted?

A few top-line things that would help this article:

-The use of “whose” in this example is a misuse of the word/grammatically incorrect. Would that really be the first bullet sent off to a potential client (mind you, the client needs a writer and such an error would be understandable but would a freelance writer send this to the client?)

-What about an example of the ad and a one sentence blurb about the company that appears above the bullets? Although Microsoft or ebay may impress some clients, how is the response targeted to the client? An example of the ad/sentence about the client’s company would help the blog reader see the connection

Mitchell, thank you so much for your article as the tips can be applied beyond the scope of elancing.

Kind regards, James

These are all great tips, but unfortunately I have to agree with Steve on this one: 75% of buyers on these bidding sites will choose the guy who will do it for 50$. They don’t care that you have the required expertise and client feedback to back it up.

Out of those 75%, I suspect a lot of them have to come back sooner or later and redo the whole thing. What was that line… “Buy cheap, buy twice!”

That’s why I don’t bother trying to impress someone who doesn’t want to be impressed. I think the number 1 tip would be to know how to pick the projects worth bidding on.

Good points, but I agree with above. Those sites are ridiculous. If you want to do design for $12 an hour, sure that might work. But the tagline: “Will give you 100% on your money back” already applies to those sites, since you really are working for free there.

Mitchell, I’ve just re-purposed your examples to improve my pitch for my web design business.

Kind regards
James

I thought it’s very hard to win a job on these sites, might consider giving it a try in the future

Thanks,
Abdo

At the risk of bragging, I do tend to get many of the jobs I apply for (don’t use bidsites at the moment, but have in the past, and I never rule them out, as I’ve got at least two ongoing jobs from them). I always tailor the response specifically to the job, field, and even the person if I can. I always include my guarantee and I always play up (early) my big name clients.

I gather that I am a persusive writer, which makes me think that I should sell THAT type of writing: resumes and cover letters lol.

These are great tips — but I certainly hope you’re not advertising yourself as an “expert technical writer whose written for Microsoft and Ebay.” I don’t mean to be a grammar nazi, but it’s always funny when people make grammar mistakes while promoting their writing skills. (The proper contraction for “who has” is “who’s.”)

Don’t hire anyone who writes this: “Expert technical writer whose written for Microsoft and eBay”

Change “whose” to “who’s” (who has)

These are good tips, but to follow them well would be time consuming and may have little chance of paying off. Even the best-prepared submissions will frequently go unanswered. With these job boards, you really don’t know who’s on the other end.

That’s not to say that it’s never worth the effort to apply to job-board postings, but a freelancer has to weigh the pros and cons. Would it be more worthwhile to focus job-seeking efforts elsewhere? I agree, however, with the subtext of this article–either do it right or don’t bother doing it at all.

Wow! These are great tips! I will start employing some of these right away!
-Trinidad

First up I “name dropped” Microsoft and eBay. As an employer this would get me thinking “wow, this guy’s written for Microsoft and eBay. He must be good, I’ll keep reading.”

Actually, no, seeing “Expert technical writer whose written for Microsoft and eBay” would make me look for a writer who doesn’t confuse “whose” (possessive form of “who”) and “who’s” (contraction of “who has”). I don’t normally indulge in grammar nitpicking, but, when you’re trying to sell your writing skills, you need to be damn sure that the writing in your pitch is flawless.

And I have to agree with Steve as well. I’ve given up on those types of sites until I can come up with a convincing way of saying, “Yes, I know you said your budget is $5 for three weeks of full-time work, but you really want to pay me $100/hour for those three weeks instead.”

Whose =/= who has (who’s)

It seems like you always get automatic replies there. You just need to be personal and not act like a robot. Then you should be just fine on web sites like those.

I have about 6 years experience total with both Elance and Guru. I started out using Elance and then jumped over to Guru since it was a cheaper solution that seemed to be more flexible, albeit more cheap for certain employers.

While I will say some of these are good tips, I do agree with a few of the posters here on the fact that some of these employers receive upwards of 50 bids, sometimes 100 and I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t go through that many no matter what the “title” of the response might be. I look at portfolio and experience over a clever title any day! Although with both sites, there is no real “title” or anything to get their attention right off. Another problem I’ve seen is that many employers barely know what they want or have a scope that is almost impossible to understand.

The thing that I’ve found that works best is analyzing their scope and engaging them with questions related to what they need. Doing this will usually ensure a response unless they are overwhelmed. Another key is being on top of the projects as they get posted. If you’re the first to bid, you’re more likely to have the employer contact you. And last, as someone else said, you have to be a bit picky and make sure you place “quality bids”.

Well that’s my 2 cents.

As someone who hires off these sites often, my number 1 tip for bidders would be to prove to me you’ve read the requirements. Yes, this means editing the custom reply template you use when responding. When I see this:

“I have created 4 web sites that are very similar to what you’re asking for. Take look at http://www.abc.com/ and http://www.def.com/ for examples. The timeline you are asking for (4 weeks) is easily doable, and I should be able to do it in 2 weeks.”

Even if it’s followed by 4 paragraphs of “copy-paste” response, that’s almost an automatic hire for me. As long as the bid is in range and the example web sites look good, this person READ my requirements and spent 2 minutes addressing MY specific requirements. Almost no one bidding does that.

And what of those freelancers who might be solid workers, highly skilled, and very talented who have not had the opportunity to work for “big name clients” like Microsoft or eBay? Do they just get automatically ruled out because they can’t name drop in the first bullet point? Are they worthless hacks because they might get more personal reward out of working with local small businesses or regional non-profits? Why must they be judged on who they worked for, or the braggadocio in their subject lines, instead of the actual work they did? The only “tip” here that I agree with is the third — and that should be standard practice for anyone in business.

Frankly, I would never waste my time trolling for work on freelance boards. I agree with the others — I can’t compete with offshore freelancers willing to work for almost-free. Price trumps expertise and competence any day.

Great article! Thank you for the tips!

I agree with almost all of this EXCEPT the 100% Money Back Guarantee. This gives the buyer an easy out and opportunity to get work for free. Not cool. Instead I always establish my payment terms (example: 10% down, 40% at midpoint, 50% upon completion). Haven’t had a client balk at that yet.

I also have to disagree with Steve and Adrian – there are a lot of buyers on these sites who will pay top dollar for experienced help. Maybe not in the writing department, but definitely on the programming/development side. The trick is weeding those out from the “I want the world on a silver platter for $50 (or less)” types. I’ve gotten a LOT of good business (and repeat business) from Elance, although their customer support is the absolute worst I’ve ever encountered.

I haven’t used Guru much, and I dislike oDesk taking pictures of my desktop at random intervals to ensure that I’m working (if I wanted someone micromanaging me like that, I wouldn’t have quit my first job out of college). Still, when you need a quick $500, it’s easier to bid on a few projects on Elance/Guru than hitting the pavement to find work.

The subject line thing is a weird one. Some of the suggestions made in the article actually look pretty spammy and they don’t necessarily show that the person was responding to your advert. I’d much rather receive an accurate subject line reflecting the advert they applied for than something that may be indeed be very clever and personalised but in fact makes you look like a spammer.

Plus some of the emails come from automated systems anyway and the sender can’t change the subject line. You’re being a bit harsh on them if that’s a criteria for rejection.

Couple of thoughts:

1) “Expert technical writer whose written for Microsoft and eBay”. The irony in this sentence is just too delicious to ignore.

2) What’s in it for you? The product. I grow really tired of employers who think that they deserve a cookie for hiring freelancers.

3) 100% money back guarantee? That is insane.

These tips are interesting and useful in proposal-writing in general, but in my experience the bid sites are not a game of carefully constructed proposals and punchy subject lines. It’s about the cheapest and the fastest. Quality usually isn’t a concern.

After spending a year searching on Guru.com, I’ve come to realize that (for me) it is extremely time-consuming and very low ROI.

I sifted through over 2,000 jobs on those boards in the past year, applied to less than 500, and won… 3. I only applied to those that looked even close to my rate and sounded like they knew what they were really asking for.

Some of those projects had over 100 bids on them. I can’t imagine someone needing help and wanting to sift (and really absorb) to the bottom of a 100-bidder list. Personally, I would pick the first one I saw that looked intelligent, legit, and on the lowest end of my price range.

Also, I typically had a lot of questions that needed to be answered before I could just throw a number out there. Again, most of the posters simply don’t have time to answer everyone’s questions and just want a low number. The three clients I worked with told me about their experiences. I was fortunate to find those very real people through all the junk.

It’s a numbers game. If you play it that way and don’t expect to make your usual rate on projects, go for it. But don’t kid yourself into thinking that most of the people posting projects are looking for anything but cheap and fast. And cheap. They also want it low-cost and not expensive. And cheap.

When I’ve found projects outside of Guru or Elance, I’ve won 90% of the projects I’ve bid on, and each client has brought me new business since. It’s not a cash cow, but it sure is more rewarding than churning through Guru posts. You also can’t beat the personal contact.

Damn, I wish I knew this earlier. My subject lines was exactly like the dull one you had under the attention-grabbing ones. Thanks for the tips.

A great set of tips. I especially like #2, I’ve not heard that one before but it makes loads of sense. The best advice is something you’ve never thought of, but once you do it seems like common sense.

Thanks a lot of the enlightening post!

Not that I hire freelancers specifically but as a hiring manager I would be more likely to ignore the responses with subject lines similar to those you’ve given as good examples. They all look like spam or desperation to me. Neither of those equate 100% with bad workmanship but I want to see people responding to my ad and not have to waste time sorting through spam or someone who didn’t even read what the ad was.

In fact, in my experience, the subject lines that differ from the “Re: blah blah” often are from those people who didn’t read the ad thoroughly and aren’t even remotely qualified to do the job.

I’m not saying you’re wrong. I think it’s just important for the freelancers out there to know there can be a big difference between how hiring managers perceive emails as you and I obviously have very different criteria on that one point.

Update on my previous response:

Differing from the “Re: blah blah” isn’t a bad idea outright. Now that I think about it I would be more likely to read a tailored subject line rather than a “Re” if it were more tame. Such as:

- Regarding your ad for position X
- I’m responding to your position X ad

Those to me show that the inquirer is taking the time to do more than just reply without much thought but they also don’t look like spam or overselling.

Also, I should have mentioned an otherwise nice post.

I agree with Thomas. When I read a subject line that says they can “do X with my eyes closed”, I am reminded of a client that fancied himself a Photoshop expert because he could use the lens flare filter.

This kind of cover letter might work for someone looking for work for getting a second look on a site like eLance, but in my experience it’s the willingness to work for little pay that matters most. However, you’re absolutely right in that you SHOULD tailor your cover letter or proposal to fit the job. As long as you can communicate clearly that you have the skills required and are an accessible, qualified candidate, you have a leg up on most people charging comparable rates.

Honestly, if you can get work outside of auction sites, you’ll be much better off. I can easily spend a third of my time on oDesk looking for work and competing for jobs, and I get “call-backs” most of the time.

P.S. – I would *never* offer a money-back guarantee to someone on a job bidding site, not because I doubt the quality of my work, but because it’s asking for a semi-anonymous client to take your work and run.

Sorry, Mitch, no way. Not gonna do it.

Thanks for the great tips, Mitch! These things are already covered at eLance University’s tutorials but it’s still different coming from an employer. Thanks!

This is great info that I will keep in mind. My frustration with these sites, well elance at least, is that so many of the jobs I apply for are never awarded. Feels like a waste to spend all that money and time and effort creating proposals.

I’ve done a little hiring on Elance and here are my thoughts.
- Like Mitch says in the article, sell the buyer. Tell them the value you get by choosing you. You have to justify your price a little bit, but as long as it’s not crazy I’ll consider it.
- Don’t let the the $50 bids dissuade you. Most of the ones I’ve seen have a pitch like “We provide our clients with the latest high quality software solutions according to top industry standards.” or worse. Address the facts of the job directly. Don’t bid until you understand what the buyer needs.
- You should get good at writing these proposals. The last project I posted attracted 20 bid, 4 of which I considered strong, and only one I choose. Given those numbers, if you’re really good at writing these intros, you’ll only get one in four projects.
- You’re probably wasting your time if there are already 20 bids on a project, unless your skills are much better than average.

Also, for what it’s worth…
- All the freelancers I’ve hired have been from North America and were not the cheapest bid. I would work with all of them again with if the need arose
- I’ve never got (in my opinion) a compelling bid from China, India, or Eastern Europe.

Mitchell, using your ideas (and without nit-picking this is what I’ve written for myself. It’s not necessarily for the elance-like sites but helps me clarify my sales pitch for my web business:

Why you should hire me:
* E-Commerce lecturer and multi award-winning web dseigner with 10 years of experience
* Trusted by Steve Parish Publishing and Wanless Enviro (reasonably well-known names in Australia)
* Fully dedicated to your project with a keen eye for detail
* 100% money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied for any reason
* Fast turn-around time (in the case of our “Website-in-a-Day” package, the website is online by 5pm)

Possible Subject Lines/Attention Grabbers:
* “Isn’t it time to blow away your competition?”
* “You can have a professional website by 5pm”
* “You deserve to have a better website than your competition”

Call to action (this would be for the “Website-in-a-Day” package – not so much for our fully tailor-made packages):
“I service the greater Brisbane area and I can book you in this/next week. Please feel free to call me on at my office +61-7-3218-2796 to discuss the project any time. I look forward to hearing from you.”

Incidentally, for those who think that finding work on elance, GAF, etc is a waste of time:
I have recently completed a quick job for a client on getafreelancer.com. I had a provider ranking of zero (I’d not done any GAF projects before) and I bid the highest amount within their budget. I was selected out of 30+ bids based on my folio of work.

Kind regards,
James

“100% money back guarantee if not satisfied for any reason” is a huuuge advantage, for sure. You’re saying “I will work for free, you don’t have to pay, if you don’t like that font I used for the ‘More’ button.” That’s definitely a sane answer that will keep you in green numbers for years.

“100% money-back guarantee!”? Yeah, that will work great for a designer who puts in a boatload of work on a project and then all the client has to say is “Er, no I don’t like it” and the designer is left doing hours of work for nothing. I would never give 100% money back guarantee on a service that is provided. That works for Snuggie or ShamWow, but not for any service provider.

I do appreciate this post even though I don’t agree with most of it.

Jiri, I don’t understand why so many people are scared of offering money-back guarantees. If you structure your terms and conditions appropriately and do good work, the benefit of offering a guarantee far out-weighs the occasional twit who will abuse it.

If it’s a nit-pick over the choice of a font, is the typical client really going to start the project from scratch with a new provider? (by the way, part of the guarantee has to be that they don’t get the product if they get their money back)

If it would become common practice for freelancers to offer money-back-guarantees then employers could hire a number of us, let us all do the work, and then just pay the one he likes best. And in the creative sector it’s already common enough to get ripped of by customers.

That has nothing to do with not being confident in your own work, it’s about securing your finances.

Good advice indeed, it makes me rethink my approach to contacting employers

As a frequent buyer on freelance sites, I have to say that I really disagree with this article. The providers I pick are the ones who read the project details and then post a question or comment about it that shows that they actually understand the project. In a world of canned responses giving the buyer some real attention makes all the difference, not just making a good sales pitch for yourself.

Also have to say that although the commentors before me are being nit-picky about the whose/who has thing they are right. As a buyer I am constantly on the look for providers with a good grasp of the english language, and messing up a sentence in which you are talking about your copywriting skill is a sure way to get me to ignore your bid. Just my 2 cents.

“100% money back guarantee if not satisfied for any reason”
This is quite tricky. About 1/4 to 1/3 of the clients on the job boards make their best not to pay at all. Most of the freelancers have experience with losing a year trying to get their money for a half-a-day project which result is being used by the client. And well… they are good in finding new and new reasons and task that they forgot to mention in project description.

Only desperate or totally rookie freelancers would write something like this.

Is this article a joke?

Or is Mitch just not satisfied with the general level of talent, experience, expertise, professionalism and service found in the “lowest common bidometer” model of trolling these sites to get last-second work done (a web site by 5PM today!) for his shopping-cart software company?

Either way, you get what you put in, and what you pay for. It’s an immutable law of life and business:

Fast. Cheap. Good.

Pick Two.

Crowdsourcing models (which so often seem to be student/newbie/hobbyist/sucker/spammer-sourcing) don’t alter that truth.

That’s a lot of comments on this post in a short period of time… why is that?
Is it because people feel passionate about the subject of finding jobs in the current economical conjecture? What else?
I am interested in your feedback on that as I am reading a book on crowdsourcing right now… I have a feeling that this is all related somehow…

Does anyone here have any experience with oDeck.com? I look at the website and I don’t like what I see. They want you to install their software. To me it is an invitation to install a computer virus on your computer. Overall, too many rules on oDeck.com. And the fees are very low…

> Only desperate or totally rookie freelancers would write something like this.

I disagree. I’ve been making websites for 10 years.. at different times as a freelancer and as a business owner. I have hired employees, outsourced work, and dealt with a lot of clients.

Sales 101: Include a guarantee.

Word it how you like – try different wordings – but make sure it’s in there. In ten years I’ve had two clients d*ck me around.

I use Elance as one avenue for finding work, and I currently get 1 out of 4 jobs that I bid on. I don’t submit lowball bids, either. I’m a full-time freelance writer, and in my experience, trying to compete on price is counter-productive. You get stuck working for clients who aren’t paying well, and then have to turn down work from clients who are willing to pay well. I agree with the main premise of this blog post-personalizing your proposal works!

However, offering a money-back guarantee is like asking to be taken for a ride. Instead, I offer up to 2 revisions included in my price. This way, I’m guaranteeing my product without leaving myself open to being ripped off or being stuck doing endless revisions for clients who don’t know what they want to begin with.

Re the open line of communication – what if you’re deaf?

I don’t like to advertise that I’m deaf, because in my experience, people are (whether they admit it or not) uncomfortable. So I usually don’t include that little snippet of info and leave off a telephone contact number, which would require a relay service number and an explanation of how it works; including all that would be cumbersome and overwhelming in an email.

Thoughts?

@Jessica, is that really true? i never visited odeck.com before but if they attempting to install any kind of software, then you should be aware, not all job site i got involved has ever asking me to install that thing

nice tips. i’m sure these will be used on my next bids.. =)

As I am starting my business now, I am thankful for the helping hand, I can surely use this knowledge to find some project, yet so far nothing came up… As they say: I won’t give up

your sample subject lines are also a sure fire to get labeled spam in allot of default mail client spam filters.

You are right.

I have used eLance a couple of times and many responders pay only cursory attention.

Spend some time reading what your potential client wants and hit his target.

Wading thru useless information is no value to anyone and so you lose your opportunity quickly.

For the past four years, my consulting company has had a money-back guarantee in place and we’ve been told that it’s usually the difference between selecting us and selecting our competitors. Not once has a single client ever invoked the guarantee and requested their money back. Why? Because the guarantee is just one part of our marketing message. Along with our other marketing messages, new clients get a “warm fuzzy” from working with us that they can’t get from our competitors who are too afraid to offer the guarantee.

I would never use this technique for a bidding site, though. The clients out there do not match our other qualifications (size, location). But to those who would dismiss the tactic out-of-hand, I can tell you that it works great for us and we’ve been nearly 100% booked for the past 3 years.

Fantastic article! You provided tips that I will implement immediately!

I am a little bit wary about saying I will return money if the client is not satisfied. that is fine if the client is a scrupulous employer such as yourself but that is not always the case.

Mind you I may take your advice because if I have to write and spin one more article on real estate for a fiver, I may shoot myself.

Good Tips. I think this can be applied to any job you are applying for. Jobs you find on this Odesk.com, Elance.com. anywhere. Show you are confident in your skills and act like you are the best at what you do.

“Expert technical writer whose written for Microsoft and eBay.”

::blink:: Yeah, that’s some expert writer, all right. I would consider advising aspiring writers to learn grammar and spelling before they start worrying about their money-back guarantees.

Does anyone edit these things?

Thanks for the tips I was very much wondering how to give a entry to it and win over projects

Everyone needs to lay off. Grammatical errors happen sometimes, Mitchell was just trying to help us. I really can’t believe how unprofessional some of you are being about this. Great article Mitchell, and thanks for the tips.

” 100% money back guarantee if not satisfied for any reason” lol – ridiculous – of course he’s a buyer – and @james stop being so naive – it’s clear you don’t have any experience with those sites – they’re filled with people who want to pay nothing – just give them the chance and they’ll take it…no matter how good you think you are.

All the haters are out.

To be clear, Mitch said that he is a potential employer on elance, not a provider. As a potential employer he is telling you what he would look for in a response. Good suggestions all.

To be critical of his grammar is the height of stupidity. I recently posted a job in a newspaper, and one of the resumes that I got back actually pointed out a grammatical error in the ad. Her resume got discarded even faster than the other 95% of resumes that were discarded.

As an employer, I could not agree with Mitch more. If you do not stand out and make me understand that you are uniquely qualified for THIS job (not just any job) than you will not receive more than 30 seconds consideration of your resume.

I hire on odesk.com quite frequently. So as a potential employer, I tend to agree with the tips in this article.

My personal preference is for responses clearly tailored to my specific posting. Not too long and not too short. Some people tend to send 200 reference URLs in response to a single post, and some people send one line “I can do this.”. Both types of response get rejected.

The ideal response would only take a few minutes of the provider’s time to write, and would go something list this:

“Your posting sounds like it was written specificly for me! I have 5 years of .NET, HTML, CSS and have developed two sites that almost exactly match what your looking for (http://www.example.com and http://www.anotherexample.com). I know you said you will be providing the graphics, but I am quite proficient in Photoshop if you need a bit of tweaking. I should be able to do this in half the time as you requested, which should leave plenty of time for testing and minor edits.”

This makes me feel like the person actually read what I wrote and is not a copy-and-paste reply. As long as the price is reasonable, this person is hired.

The only disagreement from me is that you should not include your direct contact details in an initial response. Why? Because it can get you banned from oDesk! Always check the site’s rules before posting your phone number. If you’ve been invited to interview on oDesk, then definitely give your phone number or skype details.

Some buyers will go for the $50 offer, but I frequently pick up “repair/re-do” work from people who do that. It costs them hundreds more in the long run than just getting it done right the first time!