Most clients want the products and services they buy to be good, they want to get them fast, and they want to get them cheap. Well, I am here to tell you that is not what you should expect.

The ad agency industry taught me that there's good, there's fast and there's cheap. However, you can only have two of the three at any one time. So you can get good and fast but it will be expensive. You can get good and cheap but it will take forever. Or, you can get fast, cheap and very bad.

Keep this in mind as you work with vendors as well as when you provide services to clients. Observing this simple rule eliminates a great deal of stress and avoids setting unrealistic expectations.

The best tool I have found to demonstrate this concept is a large triangle with the words good, cheap and fast written at the three different points of the triangle — just like the one in this post.

When you are planning a project, circle the two elements that you must have to meet your desired results and accept the consequences of the third point. At least, this will put you in control of your expectations for the project.

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