Recently our Interior Design firm was contacted by a prospective client about giving them a bid on some design work for their office. I was really surprised because 1) How did they get our phone number 2) Why would they choose a small firm like ours for their rather larger business. But not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth I didn't question the offer, instead we went to work preparing all that we needed.
Our office for the next few days was all abuzz with putting together colors, fabrics, styles, lights, prints, I mean we went all out. Our objective was to give them the very best that we could in the shortest amount of time possible. You see we were up against at least 2 other firms in a climate where it is as cut throat as can be. Designers were undercutting and doing all kinds of things just to get work. This would be no different. It was a large job and everyone wanted it.
I tend to be a worrywart when it comes to getting things done on time. I want it all to be ready 2 days before hand and if it isn't you can tell. I get irritable and short with everyone. No one gets a day off for any reason. Lunch is done in house and you better not call in sick. This is serious business. We are potentiall going to make more money than we have ever made to this date and if something is to hinder this project it aint gonna be us.
We worked the entire weekend and much of the next week to complete some preliminary drawings, color-boards and tile samples. It was time to present the package to the client representative and we had everything ready the night before. As Linda and I drove to the meeting we prayed for two things to be done. 1) That the client would ooh and ahh 2) That there would be an immediate response to our presentation. We ended the prayer with a confident AMEN and proceded to the meeting. At the end the representative said, "Where's the contracts, let's sign right now".
Oh crap...we didn't bring a contract. I told them that I would have one drawn up and ready by noon. Linda said that we had an appointment and that it wouldn't be until the next morning. Arghhhh....The client said OK let's do this right now and they wanted to start immediately. They asked if they could keep all of the presentation materials to show the principles of the company. (Something that we said we wouldn't do) Of course, since they said that we were hired, we left the boards and samples.
We left and smiled all the way to the car. As we drove away Linda kept asking, "Did we get the job, did we really get the job"? I told her yes, we had a verbal committment by the representative and as far as I was concerned this was a done deal. The next few days would prove to the be the longest ones of our short careers.
I prepared the paperwork within the next hour and called back the representative to have her sign the docs. She was unavailable at the time. One hour passed, then two, three and then four hours. Nothing came back to us. Had we really gotten the job? If so, then why didn't they at least call us back when we left a message? We had a friend come over that afternoon. We shared what had happened that morning. We told her that we still hadn't signed any contracts but that we felt we had a committment. Her face bore the look of doubt. So did Linda's. She thought that we had been dooped and that our drawings were being used by the client to move forward with their remodel without us.
The next morning, the same thing, nothing. I left another message. I even almost went down to the project to see if I could find out some news for myself. This was getting crazy. Why hadn't they called us back.
The shadows of doubt began to creep into my usually optimistic head by now. There just had to be some logical reason for the no call no show. I kept an upbeat exterior but under the surface I was shaking. Now just a few days before we had been thanking Jesus for the provision of this project. We had put out the fleece and God had shownup in a bigtime way. He had proved that he could move mountains in our personal lives. Now a few days later, doubt, disappointment and sadness had crept in. What were we to believe? Would we believe the promises of a Loving God or the doubt-filled ramblings of our own minds?
It was two days later and all of the sudden my phone rang. It was the company representative and she sounded tired. She said that she got my messages but that she was in another facility working on another project. She assured me that not only did we have the job, "AS IS" but that they had another facility that they wanted us to take a look at. This time it wouldn't just be part of the entire building but it would be the entire building.
We set a time for us to meet with the principles the following week and not only that but that we had much more time to prepare the finished product. I was so overjoyd that my most dreaded thoughts were unfounded that all I could do was say, "Thank You Jesus".
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