[NB: Names used in the following narrative are NOT real] The Admin Manager in a medium sized company gets an ultimatum to resolve a recurring office photocopier fault. This fault has made it necessary to visit business centres to duplicate sensitive documents at higher costs. Different "trained" service engineers brought in previously had been unable to solve the problem.

The Admin Manager, Richard, decides to ask some associates in other companies. One of them recommends a self-employed multi-skilled young man called Ezekiel(who learnt to repair photocopiers from a friend who is a Service Engineer with a large multinational).

Richard calls Ezekiel the same day. (He knows he needs to get some results, to avoid upsetting the boss.)

Next morning, Ezekiel arrives and proceeds to examine the machine.

After 15 minutes, he announces to Richard his diagnosis, and proposed solution – including parts replacement cost and his service fees(N10,000.00 and N2,500.00 respectively). Some negotiation takes place.

Both eventually agree that Ezekiel will effect the proposed solution, and once the machine is confirmed to be running smoothly, payment of Ezekiel’s service fees would be effected.

So, Richard asks Ezekiel to come in the next morning for N10,000.00 cash to purchase needed replacement parts.

Before the day runs out however, Richard makes a point of checking with other sources and, is surprised to learn that the items to be purchased actually cost just about the same amount quoted by Ezekiel. In other words, they were not "padded" by Ezekiel.

So, Ezekiel gets the money the next morning, purchases the needed items, then installs them.

By noon he is standing next to Richard as the machine is test-run and confirmed to be back in order.

Ezekiel turns to Richard and asks for his service fee of N2,500.

Richard responds that the money is not ready, and asks him to pick it up the next day.

Ezekiel calls thrice the next day via phone and each time Richard tells him the money is not ready. A day stretches to a week. Then two. Ezekiel decides to visit Richard’s office again. It turns out to be a humiliating experience.

Richard not only accuses him of being a pest, he also threatens to have him dealt with if he continues!

The most intriguing part of the exchange is when Richard makes the point that Ezekiel is not even a qualified"Service Engineer" and has no formal training or certification to repair photocopiers.

This is a very convenient argument …especially, when you consider the fact that it was this same Ezekiel, the Self-Taught technician who resolved Richard’s nagging photocopier problem AFTER a number of trained/certified engineers had failed!

As a wise service provider with over 3 decades of experience once told me: Never be too eager to deliver your service, especially, if your payment terms have not been firmly agreed upon. Reason is, service, once delivered CANNOT be withdrawn. Ezekiel, for instance, could not – within reason – go an un-fix the photocopy machine. He could have, but it would not be worth the hassle.

Now, while we’re on the subject, does anyone know of a ROAD SIDE mechanic, in Nigeria for instance, who has a certificate or degree in Mechanical, Automobile or ANY other field of Engineering?

I don’t. Any person with such paper credentials would be VERY unlikely to choose the option of working as a ROAD SIDE mechanic…more due to ego considerations, than the fact that s/he has superior problem solving skills to the (mostly unschooled) chaps on the roads!

Yet we ALL know that these same ROAD SIDE mechanics do MOST of the car repair work in this Nigeria!

I can confirm that Ezekiel NEVER got that payment, small as it was…

Yet, he had diligently done a job that he was engaged formally to do.

Now, he could have protected himself by requesting for some papers to be signed – as I had often suggested to him – but the "size" and "scope" made him think doing that would be "over kill".

Having said that, my personal experiences indicate that even getting some papers signed, to commit a client that is determined to be naughty, may do little or no good eventually.

The above narrative is a classical example of a VERY common occurrence of what I call Entrepreneur Abuse™.

And it is the kind of thing that makes many who would have loved to become self employed take the risk of doing it.

I am not unaware that something similar does happen in other societies.

However, the problem with our society, in Nigeria, is that it happens with abnormal frequency – or to put it another way: Rather than be the exception, it tends to be the norm – hence my formal label of Entrepreneur Abuse™.

Starting up and running a business to success, is already a daunting task on its own. When the challenge of getting routinely mistreated by those you serve is added, the business of entrepreneurship (and I mean the honest, non corner cutting kind!) becomes less fulfilling/rewarding than it can be.

Yet for our economy to truly flourish and prosper, we need more people to see venturing into entrepreneurship as a viable and attractive alternative.

Not one that will make them spend half of their begging to be paid profitably, and on time, for products/services they deliver to specification.

The above happens too often in Nigeria, from my experiences and observations.

I say this with every sense of responsibility and integrity, based on over a decade of being an entrepreneur in Nigeria, during which time I experienced it myriad times.

Indeed, that was what made me resolve to use the web MORE to sell my products and services 80% of the time, while taking on face to face clients – by exception/after careful evaluation – the rest 20% of the time.

The example described in this story is one that occurred at a very basic level, to a relative newbie to entrepreneurship.

This abuse is also routinely inflicted on more established, professionally certified entrepreneurs, who run larger operations. Sadly, many of those in this latter group, to whom it happens decline to talk about it openly for fear (I believe) of being marked down.

My attitude is to remind such persons that they are ALREADY being marked down INSPITE of the fact that they REFUSE to talk about or challenge those who do it.

When you bring it up for discussion, like I am doing here, and as I have done for years, at least 2 things are likely to happen:

1. Those who do it, or have a tendency to do it, will KNOW that you are unlikely to accept it being done to you. So, the frequency with you encounter it WILL drop. Which means you get to enjoy doing what you do, and love, MORE. Yippy ;-))

2. Others who can do something to stop it (e.g. regulatory bodies such as government human rights protection offices etc) can become aware, through you, that it is happening. And this can prompt them to investigate and/or set up systems to discourage the practice.

I love helping clients do what they do better, using my skills as an entrepreneur.

However, I will enjoy doing it much less, if clients take advantage of me, and refuse to reward me as agreed, for the value I add to them.

And that can be frustrating.

That is why I have developed a process for identifying the right kinds of clients to work with.

What’s more, over the years, I have refined the use of that system, and it’s helped me dramatically REDUCE contact with persons with a tendency to be abusive in the manner described above.

In doing the above, one need not get aggressive. You can confront without being combative.

A lot of this has to do with how you present yourself, from your very first contact with a “properly screened” potential client. Your ability to assert yourself without being “rigid or insensitive” will determine how your interpersonal exchanges subsequently evolve.

Sadly, most people who end up as entrepreneurs are unlikely to be taught any of the above, while learning their core professions in formal school. As a result, they may have to learn via experience, in the school of hard knocks (like Ezekiel).

Do YOU Need Help LEARNING How to Protect Yourself From Abuse By Potentially Exploitative Clients?

Well, you’re in the right place. That, is one of a number of services I offer, as a Multipreneurial Performance Improvement Specialist.

Click here to tell me what the nature of the experience you are having..

PS: This article is based on excerpts from a write up first published online, in 2006, on Tayo Solagbade’s "Beat The Nigerian Factor" website located on www.spontaneousdevelopment.com.