Jerusalem — where people love wasting your time
Running a business in Israel is not easy. A story goes that the easiest way for a new immigrant to become a millionaire in Israel is to arrive Israel as a billionaire. I’ve heard so many super rich businessmen bringing all their family and business to Israel just to lose all their money in a few years.
I have an online marketing agency targeting a niche audience. I’ve gotten many requests from fellow Israelis. Some basically want you to work for free and pay only for results. Many don’t even have that budget to pay for marketing but they waste your time asking many questions.
I’ve learnt the hard way and now I know exactly which kind of customers are highly potentials and some are pure waste of time.
The biggest waste-of-timers, are companies from Jerusalem (I have only 2 exceptions so far), and especially governmental companies.
Israeli Governmental companies, by law, need to ask for bids for any type of services. So they ask from you and a bunch of others. Then they take the lowest bid regardless how professional you are, how exceptional your services are. If you are one dime higher than others you’re out.
That is fine, but not when you ask people going all the way to Jerusalem for “interview” to waste not only a few minutes of your time, but a whole day long.
I have such bad taste experiences that I have to write about it. One is Jerusalem Development Authority. One is City of David (two super waste of time experiences with people who want to learn information from you without paying you a penny).
I drove 2.5 hours plus parking fee equals to $10 in order to meet this “potential customer”, Jerusalem Development Authority tourism department. All looked good and I got a 2nd interview notice in Tel Aviv at their exhibition booth. No news after a few weeks. When I called to inquire, those people who I wasted a few hours of my lifetime plus whole 2 days on the road could hardly remember who I was. Then they remembered. Then they said that they had decided to cancel this project.
I shouted the 4-letter-word in my heart so loud that I think they must have heard it, too. They stole from me $1000 USD worth of working hours.
This waste-of-time experience taught me:
- Ignore requests from governmental companies. They are playing a sold game, and they just ask many people to show interest in order to make believe that they go through a certain bidding/tender process (an insider friend told me this afterwards).
- Don’t go out from your office for time wasting meetings unless you think it’s worthy.
The experience of meeting City of David (part of Ministry of tourism) should not have happened. The guy that wrote me and called several times is a owner of an agency. Another futile meeting in Jerusalem. This person wasted my time to show to City of David that he had the connection to someone who can do the marketing to China. This someone was me. After one hour show, I never heard from them again.
If you happened to be a supplier of such governmental companies, I’d say congratulations to you for your connections that bring you to such big fat customers. Otherwise, I’d like to suggest to anyone who receive an opportunity to meet such companies: Don’t waste your time, trust me.
