I did a small programming job for a hedge fund a few days ago. They found me on linked in. It took me a few minutes to figure out what needed to be done. I like a challenge. I had a nice chat with one of the partners—a real gentleman.

I mentioned the job to my recent Penn State graduate son, who will start his first job as a developer in a few days. He said, “I would have charged them more.” I explained that I enjoy the work, it was easy, and I don’t like being greedy.  I want to be known for providing value to my customers.

Today they paid me – I use pay pal. I didn’t even send them a bill yet. It was double what I asked for. Included with the payment was the following note.

“I 𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐨 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 . . ..” in a follow-up email, he mentioned additional work.

It’s the kind of thing I think so rarely happens, but when it does, it can put a smile on your face for days. I also think it is proof that providing value attracts more customers.  If you liked this post -may I suggest: Great FeedBack 

Raymond Mills, M.B.A., M.S.  has spent over 20 years of his career as Accountant, Investment Bank and Credit Card Technical Auditor/ Data Analyst.  His specialty was using Excel to get Big Databases including Teradata, Oracle,  Squel Server and Sybase to give up their secrets. Ray has said “I love nothing better than using VBA to unleash the power of Microsoft Office.” You can contact Ray @ 484 574-3190 or by emailing him Here

If you have a challenge with Excel, Access or Word and would like to speak with Ray,   You can get his contact details by clicking here: Contact Me