Picking a pro

This is the kind of thing I'd usually talk about on Packing Heat, but since I'm not doing Packing Heat anymore, I might as well think aloud about it here.

We writers need the services of other professionals both as businesspeople, and as human beings. Unless you have some very specialized training, it's not a good idea for us to install our own toilets, cut our own hair, edit our own books, or (in my case) do our own taxes. But sometimes we hook up with a professional in what should be a mutually beneficial arrangement, only there's something subtly wrong with the relationship. You feel bad after you meet with them. Inadequate, somehow. You feel guilty for asking them to do the work you've both agreed they would do for you, and that you're paying them for. You start feeling anxious days, or even weeks, before you need to meet with them.

And by you, I mean me.

I had a dentist who made me extremely uncomfortable. (In fact, every dentist I've ever had in my life was hideous except one in Chicago 20 years ago who was nice.) Finally, when my insurance dropped him...back when I HAD dental insurance...I remember thinking, "Oh boy! Now's my chance to get free of him!" The dentist I switched to is like a dream! He's smart and funny, and all the work he's done on my teeth is wonderful.

Okay, how about my accountants? My first accountant was great. So great that he developed a numbers-system and used it to win the lottery and retire. My second accountant...that was one of those awful relationships I was talking about "you" having a few paragraphs up. So I decided I wasn't going to give her any third chances. I prepared all week long and met this morning with my third accountant...and he is great! I'd been re-inventing the wheel every three months to pay my quarterly taxes, and he says he can do my 2010 return AND prepare my estimated quarterly payments for 2011 and all I need to do is mail them in. No re-figuring everything every three months.

Hallelujah!

He's in the same building as my good dentist. Coincidence? I think not.

So anyway...here's my thought on picking a professional to help you out, whether it be with your plumbing or your cover art or your typesetting or your taxes. You are in charge. It's your business or your body or your affairs. There's no reason for you to feel guilty or inferior, and if for some reason this other person manages to make you feel this way, switch! I wish I had switched dentists earlier. The good, funny, competent, smart dentist was three blocks away from the creepy one who whispered all the time and always acted like I was in need of a full mouth transplant. I wish I had picked the current accountant instead of the bad one the last time I was in the market. I had a call in to each of them and ended up going with the bad one because she returned my call first, and seemed intelligent when I met with her. Yes, I realize in psychobabble-talk, no one can "make you feel" anything, but I do know this: sometimes we come away from dealing with certain people feeling worse than we did before.

When you see this pattern, walk away. You're in charge. You.