It’s that time of year again…

The time where people start to panic about end-of-year spend, mounting bills and cutting corners.

Let me remind you of something both swiftly AND bluntly…

You are not a charity.

You do not have coffers equal to the depth of Sunak (or any of the other big corporates. ).

You are a good, honest business owner, doing your best to serve your clients, make a positive difference in the world and look after yourself and your family.

And so, when a client asks if they can take a payment break, pause for a few sessions until new year, or quit without either giving notice or fulfilling their end of the contract, it might present you with a few challenges.

When you explain, kindly and compassionately, why that’s not possible, you might find that conversation ends up being nowhere near as difficult as you’d imagined.

You can work with your clients to find a way through to suit you both, whilst remaining as fair as possible without simply taking on someone else’s cashflow issues yourself.

By and large, people don’t stop to think they’re just trying to pass their problems down the line; when someone’s in a financial panic, they almost always assume everyone else is a millionaire.

They don’t need to know the ins and outs of your finances – that’s none of their beeswax, and you’re not in the business of trying to play the guilt game.

They can, however, be gently reminded that you’re self-employed too, you’re not a huge company, and there’s a reason you have contracts, terms and conditions – they exist to safeguard you both.

Beyond that, if you’re in the business of coaching and/or mentoring, you might want to steer your sessions towards what’s caused your client’s cash flow scare and how they can build to a point where that doesn’t need to happen in future.

And if THEIR request to pause/slow down/stop paying has caused YOU to have a financial panic, you might also want to turn those questions towards yourself too.

Why has this happened for you now?

How can you create a more stable business for the future?

What’s needed to nurture and grow your own cashflow?

Hint (and I know you’re going to want to poke me in the eye for this one)… if you’re blaming everything on the state of the economy and nobody having any money, you’re barking up the wrong tree and into a losing battle.

Think again and look closer to home – including your contracts, terms, marketing, messages, sales, efforts, service levels, expertise, drive, focus and determination.

Need help? You know where I am.

Until next time,

#UnleashYourAwesome

Taz X