Elanso

1. "Dude, I'm working 9897685709856056 hours!"
2. "And, I'm only getting paid $2!"
3. "This is how hard REAL entrepreneurs work! HIGH FIVE!"

That's the fact of an entrepreneurial life, right?

You know:

1. Work ridiculous hours.
2. Get paid barely anything.
3. Can't afford health insurance, dental care, and the other yaddas.

"OH NO!"

But wait...

Why do some "magical" entrepreneurs out there seemingly:

1. work twice as less as you
2. make five times as much as you

Get this.

Two types of customers exist:

1. Customers that will work you like mofos for two dollars.
2. Customers that pay you splendidly for your valuable work.

We tend to:

1. find the very first client that wants to work with us
2. accept meager contract price
3. work butt off for little pay that ultimately exhausts us with incessant customer demands

Take web designer Kelly.

1. Kelly's working on a website for a mom-and-pop shop.
2. They're paying her a measly $100 for a website that must include a "custom content management system, multi-user access, permissions galore, a custom blogging engine, and a lead system."
3. She works her freakish bootay off.

50 hours of work later:

1. The mom-and-pop's peeps don't like this, and this, and this, and this, and this.
2. They want her to redesign humongous freakish parts of the website.

50 more hours of work later:

1. "We're getting there," the mom-and-pop tells Kelly.
2. "Now, I want you to change this, and this, and this, and this. Also, can you add 20 of these extra features? Thank you."

Exhaustion sets in.

Kelly wants to escape.

But, she's determined -- because hey, Edison never quit, so why should she?

"If I just stays in the ball game, I'll be a-okay!"

But no.

She destroys her morale, burns herself out, and the simple thought of running her own business scares the beejeebus her.

Choose Your Clients Wisely

Horrifically-cheap clients that want you to change the world for them for $2 will:

1. exhaust you
2. drain your morale
3. make you work exponentially horrific hours
4. run your business into the ground

Rich clients and organizations that will pay you richly for your efforts will:

1. boost your morale
2. connect you to profitable referrals
3. grow your company
4. give you a life

Working for cash-strapped mom-and-pop shops might be good for the initial learning experience; but relying on unprofitable clients will exhaust you to your core -- and put your business on the brink of falling off the cliff.

Look for richer clients.

Think the Fortune 500. Think the government. Think bigger clients.

At the least, think clients that can pay you above market rates for your services/offerings.

(And, if you can couple that with recurring work, you'll set yourself in super fantastic shape.)

Those big guys can likely service those mom-and-pop shops in some way anyway (through economies of scale), so you won't need to sacrifice your welfare.

Win for all.

KABOOMSHAKAH!

Think bigger.

If you enjoyed Why Entrepreneurs Work Too Hard, you might also like our business guide.