Chico and Groucho

"There's always a chico." Something tells me I might just have spoken about this before. Forgive me if I have, but it bears repetition; at least I think it does.

There's always a chico. The reason for talking about this at all is that it says a lot about how things get done or don't get done here. There's always a chico, and rarely if ever a chica. This is how it goes. Business owner of pretty much any type of business wants stuff done, stuff like some design work, perhaps a website; it can be other stuff, but this is the stuff I know about. So the owner, needing - for instance - a logo design and some publicity material, does not go hunting the local páginas amarillas (yellow pages, which are pretty useless any way), does not get some firms to pitch, does not do anything like that. What the owner does is to know a chico, often a mate or a mate's mate. A chico who probably does this stuff as a sideline. And so the chico gets some of the stuff done. It can be quite good stuff, but this is not the real point of all this. When it comes to doing something urgently, for example, the chico is nowhere to be found, or perhaps he is; just that he's doing his shift at the bar.

Then there are the occasions when the owner does contemplate using a pro. I know. There was one bar owner who wanted a website doing. I introduced him to a contact, someone who does websites, not as a sideline but for real. The budgeted figure was too high (but nowhere as high as it would be in the UK), so, having done some preliminary work, the owner announces that there is a chico. And do you know what? The website is still not done; been under construction for over a year.

Another business, an estate agency, another website, another chico. Disaster. Ends up costing more to get it done properly. I could go on, and on. There's always a chico. And there's always a chico who, because he's a mate or is cheap, does not deliver. I see it time and time again. No wonder the real pros have enough of it and go back to the UK, where there may well be "boys" but where things are more professional and where a fair day's work is paid for with a fair day's fee.

So much for the grouch.


QUIZ
Yesterday's chain - The Blues Brothers to John Belushi to National Lampoon's Animal House to The Animals to Eric Burdon. And so what connection is there between Eric Burdon and Edwin Starr? Yesterday's title was from "Fool On The Hill"; that's what I had in mind anyway.

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