#139 Save the tears in business - here's how
If you’re a long-time listener, something you would have heard me say over and over again is that prevention is better than cure. And I say this for good reason. Having supported business owners for over 20 years now, I’ve seen time and time again when business owners find themselves in difficult situations that they can’t get out of. It takes a toll not only on their businesses but on their mental and emotional states as well. But the tears can be avoided and today I’m sharing how.
In this episode, I’m taking you through some real-life examples of clients who have come to me recently with very similar problems. Each of these women had clients with misaligned expectations and unfortunately, they didn’t have properly tailored legal documents in place. Some had patched together agreements, others copied templates, but none of these documents effectively protected their interests. Without properly tailored legal documents in their businesses, they were left with a significant aftermath.
Let’s be real, if you’re in business, you’re going to face challenges. No matter how positive you are and how much work you do to set yourself up for success, you will inevitably have clients who are disgruntled, customers who want a refund or not want to pay their invoice at all. But misunderstandings with clients don't just have financial consequences; they have a profound ripple effect.
I share how the situations my clients found themselves in impacted their client retention, business growth, relationships and not to mention the sleepless nights, overwhelming stress, and the sinking feeling that comes with it all.
Now, I can offer guidance and support, but I can't control the timing of resolving these disputes. What I can control is ensuring that you understand the importance of prevention. It's about having the right legal documents and robust processes and systems in place to minimise the chances of disputes and provide a clear roadmap for addressing unexpected situations.
It's not just about having legal documents; it's about having the right ones that align with your business and knowing how to use them effectively. With the proper legal foundations, you can confidently navigate challenges and avoid unnecessary tears, allowing you to focus on what you do best – growing your business.
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[00:00:00] Tracey: Hi, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the rise up in business podcast. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm coming to you today to share with you some calls that I've had recently with prospects. So weren't formerly clients. They are clients now. And the reason I want to share that on this episode is because there's a common theme through these calls and I think it's really important to share this information and share what I've got to say as far as I possibly can, because I know how valuable the approach of prevention being better than cure in business really is.
[00:00:55] If you're a long time listener of the podcast, you'll have heard me say so many times, prevention's better than cure in business. There's no substitute for preparation. That's the theme of today's episode. Over the last three or four weeks, I have fielded eight phone calls from new prospects that are now all clients because they found themselves in a really stressful position with clients of theirs. And the reason they found themselves in those stressful positions because something went wrong. And I know that as business owners, we set ourselves up and we think it won't happen to me. It'll be right. I've been so lucky with all my clients.
[00:01:33] I attract beautiful people. It won't happen to me. That is often the case. And I often say, given my 20 plus years experience in this game, something unexpected will happen at some point. Something will not go according to plan at some point And when that does happen to you, you want to make sure you've got solid foundations in place, being legal documents to support you navigate that issue. Otherwise, I want to share with you what can happen.
[00:02:02] the common theme through these calls, and it's really uncanny that it really was very similar with all of these calls all women is that I don't have properly tailored legal documents in place in my business. So some of them have something they've cobbled together. Some of them have got something that they copied from a friend. One person had a template, but none of them work to do what these documents are supposed to do. No judgment. Please accept no judgment here. We all do the best we can at the time with the information we have. Absolutely no judgment, but what can happen when we don't have properly tailored legals in place to support us is when a situation arises with a client in the case of all the women I've spoken to, a client with misaligned expectations, they're unhappy, they're disgruntled.
[00:02:51] With one, they were unhappy about a product recommendation that this particular interior stylist had made. With another, they were unhappy because they misunderstood what the business owner, my now client, had said in an earlier meeting, and that was in relation to pricing, they misunderstood. So the clients then hear certain things, their clients hear certain things, and they proceed on a certain basis. There's nothing solid in place in terms of documentation to manage those expectations, so everyone progresses. Client thinks one thing, business owner thinks another thing. There's no hiccups until crunch time. So sometimes crunch time is a presentation. Sometimes it's an implementation. Sometimes it's the issue of an invoice.
[00:03:36] Whatever that crunch time is, that's when things tend to rear their head and the issue arises. And what's happened here is these clients have said, I thought you were also going to do this, or I didn't know that was a risk with that selection. That's not what I understood. I didn't know about that risk. I'm not prepared to wear that. You need to now go and refund me all the money for that and replace it. Or in another example, I'm not prepared to pay this invoice because I thought this in relation to pricing.
[00:04:10] Now, when these things happen, and as you're listening to me, you might think, Oh, it's not that big a deal Tracy, these things happen. You sort it out. But when these things happen, what it often does to the business owner is it causes them to go into a spin, a panic, a state of stress, a state of overwhelm, a state of sadness, even, and you get that sinking stomach feeling and you think, Oh, this is awful. How could they possibly think that? I had included the payment of that final invoice or that next invoice into my cashflow projection, or I can't afford to replace that particular product. That's quite considerable in terms of cost. I can't afford that. Or I don't have the time to redo that particular person's work, because I have other work in the workflow and it's all hinged into my cashflow projection. So it really does throw a spanner in the works.
[00:05:04] And what I've seen, I've seen it over many, many, many years, as you know, if you're a long time listener, but from these particular examples that I'm drawing on for today's episode is each of these business owners has said to me, "I have been in tears, Tracy, for days. I haven't done any work. I'm now behind on my other work. I cannot sleep. I need this resolved." And the sad, sad reality of this is I can't resolve it for you to your timeframe. I can help you navigate it. We can put a strategy in place. I can advise you on where your exposure is. We can try to mitigate it. We can work out a plan. We can put communication to the client or whatever the case may be to resolve it, but we're not in control of how they respond or react to our next step. So we can't control the timeframe.
[00:05:53] So when a client says to me, I've been in tears for the last two days, I need this resolved now so that I can get on with my work, we can't control the timeframe. That's the sad part of all of this. When I see this, when it happens and women come to me and they share these things with me, it's awful because these women have good businesses and they're really great at what they do.
[00:06:15] And their eye is now off the ball because they're thinking about what are my next steps? How do I deal with it? How did this happen? Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. We're thinking about cashflow. We're thinking about the rest of our client work. We're thinking about all the things but they're not in there doing the revenue generating work because they can't concentrate and focus, and they're not focusing on the growth strategy of their business and building relationships and nurturing networks because they're all consumed by this particular issue.
[00:06:43] So you can see the ripple effect here. And I talk about this a lot on the podcast, but you can see the ripple effect of when your eye is not on the ball and what it is that it costs you. It's not just money when we're talking invoices or resupplying products or tiles or whatever it might be. It's not just the money. The money is important. It's not just that though. It has a flow on effect to other client retention, new clients, relationship building, all the things. There is such a flow on effect that that's the part that people often underestimate when we're having that initial chat about, Hey, let's get your legal's done for you.
[00:07:22] Let's get them tailored for you and your business so that they work. There's so many reasons why you need this. Why Tracy? What's the worst that can happen? There is so many things that is the worst that can happen. I could talk about it for a very long time. And if you're a long time listener, you've heard me talk about it so much.
[00:07:39] So what I've done with these women that have come to me is I've been able to support them and hear them and give them the advice that they need, whether they like it or not, but then support them to put a plan in place so we can move forward and navigate the issue and to give them a chance to gather themselves such that they can continue to think about the next piece of client work that they need to do and grow their business, show up on their socials or whatever else it is they need to be doing in their business to support their business growth journey.
[00:08:10] But what I can't do is dictate the timing. What I can't do is give a definitive answer to say we will have this done and dusted by the end of this month and you can move on. I can't do that because we have no way of controlling what the other party in each matter will do, how they'll react or respond.
[00:08:27] So I wanted to share these real life examples with you on this episode, because as the title says, we can avoid the tears in business. We really can. And I get it. And I've been there in terms of the stress and the overwhelm and the tears. Holy moly, of course, I've been there and I've been supporting business owners for more than 20 years now so you can imagine how much of that I've seen, but what I say in my messaging and what I'm saying to you here now is that can be avoided so we can avoid that. We can avoid that by making sure we've got properly tailored legal documents in place that suit your business and the way you operate to make sure that your processes and systems are set up to support those documents.
[00:09:13] There is no point having those documents in place if we don't know how to use them or if things fall through the cracks and sometimes they get issued and sometimes they don't. There is no point. We want to make sure that your processes and systems are developed and support those documents so that nothing falls through the gaps.
[00:09:29] And that's part of the work I do. When I work with you to develop your tailored legal documents, process and system and how you're going to use them is absolutely part of the advice I give, the time we spend together and the support that I give you. You don't get that when you buy a template, I can assure you, but the point is the processes and systems are just as important as the documents themselves.
[00:09:51] Otherwise you can find yourself in the unfortunate position that some of these women have found themselves in. So you want to know what you've got in place works and you want to know how to use them. So once you've got that, the documentation is done and you know it's done right and you're proud of them. You know your processes and systems. Everyone in your team knows your processes and systems. And they are set up and designed to support you and the way you do business. You then have significantly reduced the chances of misaligned expectations and disputes about things like selections and product recommendations and payment terms and the services that you're providing and what's excluded because you've set it all out really clearly.
[00:10:33] And then if you still find yourself in a situation where something unexpected has happened. All of a sudden there are no tears, there is no stress, there is no eye off the ball. There is quite simply a process where you say to your client, Hey, really sorry that you've misunderstood. Here it is in my terms. Here it is there. We talked about it here. This is not included, but happy to do it for you. This is the additional fee, or no, I did advise you of that. Here it is. Let's move forward. It makes it so much easier to have documents to fall back on to support you navigate these tricky situations So they're done and dusted.
[00:11:11] Half of the time if not more you won't even need to reach out to someone like me to get some support to work out How to deal with it Because you'll be so confident in your documents and your systems and processes, you can do it all alone. It's seamless. It's done and dusted. Next day, business as usual and you were doing all the things in your business that you are meant to be doing. I hope that has shed some light for you in a really practical sense on why it is that I say prevention is better than cure in business and why the tears really can be avoided if we do some proper planning and get things set up properly for you.
[00:11:45] If you're loving this episode and getting real value out of it, I would be so grateful if you would share this with some of your business friends or colleagues and help me get the podcast into the ears of even more business owners. If you haven't subscribed. It would mean so much to me if you did, because that means that I know you won't be missing a single episode and that the episodes that I'm bringing to you every single week are delivering as much value as they possibly can. So thank you so much for joining me. I'm so grateful for your time and I'll catch you next week.
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