The Loose Wire Theory
Throughout the years I have worked with many clients who, for some unknown reason, devalue the importance of quality cabling. A very long time ago I set a standard for all clients requiring their cabling to be neat, organized and professionally installed. Additionally, all patch cables should be manufactured and absolutely not hand-made. If a prospect is unwilling to make the investment to correct a botched cabling installation, we part ways immediately. The reason is simple–as a matter of running a business, no one should have to be concerned about a single loose wire causing an outage. Since I instituted this standard among my clients, there have been far fewer incidents that could have been easily prevented. A quality cabling installation could cost two to five times more than the average botched installation but a single service call from someone like myself combined with the outage, lost productivity (or even worse, lost customers) greatly off-sets the savings.
Going beyond that, if a prospect or client is unwilling to see the importance of the “Loose Wire Theory”, there is a good chance they have many other faults in business. These faults may include timely payment of invoices (or non-payment), risk mitigation, and many others. I am not willing to put myself and my reputation at risk to save someone else a dime. Integrity and standards are too important, in my opinion.