Unique Beautiful Fun
15 April 2016 by Sarah-Jane Smith
sjsmith.com.au - blog
Lessons Hard Won
Seeing the Upside
After being self employed for nearly twenty years I've taken a few knocks since I started. One client cancelled a job without warning and with a great deal of money owing. It took two years, a truck load of cash and a lot of tears to finally see some of what they owed and then the little gain was wiped out in legal fees. There were a lot of big lessons learnt from that but boy, were they hard ones. Firstly, make sure you document everything. If there are changes to a contract or prices put it in writing. If there are problems with late payments make notes about it. Who you talked to, when and where and what was said. Thirdly, make sure your payment policy is really clear and firm. If you ask for a deposit, make sure you get it before you start any work. Don't be pressured by other people. If there are meant to be progress payments and they're not made, suspend work until they are up to date. Most people are nice and if you're helpful and polite they will be too but talk is cheap.
People may have every intention of getting the cheque in the mail, the electronic payment made or, the bank transfer done but until you actually have the money cleared in your account it's fairy dust!
This was a really difficult time in business for me and I had a lot of self doubt about whether I had what it takes to keep going.
When I looked back, I learnt a lot of lessons in a really short time. Since I'm still self employed I guess I did have what it takes. When things don't go well it's easy to see them as a catastrophe. Sometimes we need to step back and instead see them as lessons. I hope yours aren't too hard!
Till next time,
Sarah-Jane X