by Angela Taffs | Jul 19, 2018 | Business Success, Legal
Do you have terms and conditions for your business?
If not, go sort them out now!
Not only will this help protect you in the future in case of any dispute but they make you look more professional and can help you gain business. Your clients need to know exactly what they are getting and feel protected from their end also.
Today, I was in the process of booking a photo shoot with a photographer who asked for a deposit up front. I was more than happy to pay this but requested T’s and C’s with contract first. And then came the silence …….
They didn’t have any! This made me feel very aware that I was handing over my money with no protection on my side. What if I needed to change the date or cancel? How long would it take to get the photos after the shoot? What if the photos weren’t good enough?
Hasten to say, I didn’t pay the deposit and cancelled the shoot.
As a bare minimum, your terms and conditions should include:
- The scope of the work with a clear definition of what products and services will be provided.
- Timelines for the work to be completed,
- What it is going to cost and your payment terms
- What happens if either party is unhappy and/or wishes to cancel.
Without clear terms and conditions, confusion can occur with the client thinking they may be able to pay at the end of a service but you need payment up front. Or it may be that they think the service will be delivered to a different timescale than you can work to.
Have you ever encountered any problems with clients in the past? What was that problem? Think how to incorporate terms and conditions that will stop this scenario happening in the future such as a client having to supply you with information required within a given period (this is a huge problem for web designers where they are sat waiting for info before they can complete the project and get paid!).
There are plenty of templates online to use such as at SQL Legal but do make sure that you read them carefully to ensure they cover all you need for your specific business.
by Angela Taffs | May 24, 2018 | Angie's ramblings - The reality of working from home, Running a Business
How often do you hear “let’s meet and have a chat”?
This is the common opening line of a typical grab a coffee request.
Now then, I am more than happy to give an initial free consultation to anyone who needs help. We all need a helping hand at times. But what rankles me are those that you have this chat with who then want to follow it up in more detail over a coffee. They know you can help them but they don’t want to pay.
These people are those that I know personally and because of this connection, they seem to think they can use my services and not have to pay. (The strange thing is that they never offer me free products or services that they sell).
I wrote an article ‘Can I Pick Your Brain’ a while ago now but thought it would be useful to come up with a few more answers to those who don’t value your time or expertise.
How to decline the grab a coffee request
For people who think you are dumb and will fall for the coffee invite just for them to bombard you with questions.
“I would love to meet for coffee. It would great to get away from the office and have a break from the business talk for an hour.”
People who are in the frame of mind that they want everything for free, usually don’t want to meet during their social time.
Try the following:
‘How about we meet for a drink. You could pop over to (somewhere close to you as they usually also want you to go where it’s convenient for them) when I finish work on (insert day). It would a lovely way to wind down after a busy day.”
Both these responses make it clear that you are NOT going to be talking business. It’s quite satisfying when you hear the person on the other end stumbling for a response.
For people who have made it clear they want to pick your brains for nothing
Don’t be afraid of offending these people. They aren’t worried about offending you.
“I’d love to take you up coffee but unfortunately coffee doesn’t pay my bills”
Or:
“I’ve never found that discussing business over coffee is the most effective way of giving advice. I’d be more than happy to book you in for an appointment. I’ll email you the details to get you booked in.”
Then send them your paid booking link. I promise you won’t hear from them again.
These two responses are more direct but very effective.
Alternatively…
“I don’t have time for coffee but more than happy to book you an appointment in my office”.
This is slightly softer and keeps the channels of communication open.
An even more softly, softly catch-all answer would be
“I’d love to but I’m currently snowed under”.
This one is when you really do not want to meet the person whether they pay for your time or not. A longer version for those who you are happy to take their money…
“I’d love to meet for coffee but I’m flat out with work at the moment. If it’s to meet to discuss your (business/ailment/idea etc) you can book an appointment via my online calendar.”
Do make sure this online calendar is linked to your payment system so they know there will be a charge. This works like a dream for me and stops any awkward conversations in their tracks.
Ultimately, just be straight with them. Tell them
“If it’s a coffee and a chat I would love to meet up but being open and honest here, if you are just trying to use it as an excuse for free advice, I’ll be a tad offended”.
Now let them squirm with embarrassment.
Don’t feel bad declining the grab a coffee requests
And don’t feel guilty. Remember, if you did all of these free coffee requests, your business would rapidly go downhill and your paying clients would get to hear and get pretty pissed off.
Your business. Your rules.
Do you have any responses you would like to share? Leave them in the comments box below.
by Angela Taffs | May 22, 2018 | Business Success
I fully believe that any woman with a passion and a commitment to succeed can achieve anything they wish to.
But saying that, you have to make your own opportunities.
I have met and worked with women who have homeless drug addicts, who when given an opportunity, have grabbed it with both hands and built the most amazing businesses.
And I have also met with incredible women who had an amazing talent and everything they needed to create something wonderful, but they just didn’t follow through due to a lack of confidence and a fear of failure.
Confidence and a determination to do whatever it takes is the key to success. And a lack of confidence can be a real killer as can be the fear of the unknown. That’s why I always start off any work with clients, whether in person or one of my online courses building their confidence and self-belief. After all, if you don’t believe in yourself, why should anyone else?
You can have the best product or service out there, you can know everything there is to know about how to market it to your ideal client, but if you don’t have the right mindset, you just won’t have the confidence to go out there and go after those paying clients.
You may well dabble a little here and there, but you will get sporadic results. You will stumble when asked for a discount and may well end up giving one! You may start to lose motivation when you get rejected by someone and you find out they buy elsewhere.
Getting in the right mindset is critical and the very first thing you need to before anything else when building a business in my opinion. Forget reading up and watching more webinars on how to grow sales through Facebook until you truly believe in yourself and your product and are prepared to stand up and shout it out from the rooftops how fabulous you are.
And once you have that cracked, as fired up and enthused as you may be about creating your own business, it will take hard work, commitment and personal investment on your own part along with self-responsibility for making things happen. It’s quite simply not going to happen overnight.
You will hit hurdles. The unexpected will happen. You won’t always get what you want.
The time will never be right and nothing will ever be perfect.
And this is where the determination and the right attitude will be the difference between winners and losers.
You can sit back, feel that life is unfair and ultimately give up. Or you can decide that you will get up off your backside and keep battling forward.
Putting it quite simply …
The action takers win
And that’s where I come in. I will keep you motivated and inspired to keep taking those small steps forward that lead to great results.
I know how hard it can be when you are starting out and struggling against one hurdle after another. I will be there when you need me, so you need never feel alone again.
If you have a dream, if you have a burning passion, get in touch. You have nothing to fear and everything to gain.
by Angela Taffs | May 18, 2018 | Business Success, Running a Business
Sometimes, when you realise your industry is becoming saturated with competitors, stop trying to fight against them and think about how you can turn this into an opportunity.
I always remember meeting the founders of The Soap Kitchen many years ago when the husband and wife team were starting up from their dining table. Over the years, their business grew as did their competitors.
Instead of fighting against them and getting consumed with worry, they looked at the opportunity this presented. They decided to adapt their business model. Rather than continuing to just make soap, they started running workshops teaching their competitors how to make soap. But taking it further, they also started supplying them with raw materials.
The business exploded and four years ago they moved from their beautiful, but humble dining table to a shop and separate large warehouse with more than 20 staff. It is now the leading DIY soap-making supplier in the UK and Europe.
Today I met a lady who offers a service and has been met with a similar problem. She is in the holistic health and wellness industry and it seems like every other person and their dog is now entering this. Her competitors are growing daily.
She recognised she was having to work harder but not seeing any increase in profits so came to see me. Rather than getting flustered, she went through everything with me and we soon realised a golden opportunity right under her nose where she could help others entering her profession. She could teach courses on how to get to the level that she had reached.
Create opportunities out of problems
Rather than looking at helping her competition adversely affect her, she saw the opportunity to create more income. This would also raise her profile in the industry giving her business visibility. She would now be integrating with competitors rather than trying to avoid them.
If you’re struggling with competitors, consider what hidden opportunities are out there for you. Don’t let your initial panic make you blind to these. If you’ve been in business for a while, and other new faces are appearing, take advantage of this. See how you can help them whilst creating a new income stream for yourself.
You might surprise yourself and find you enjoy it whilst significantly increasing your profits.
by Angela Taffs | May 13, 2018 | Business Success, Employees, Running a Business
Outsourcing business tasks can really take the pressure off you when building a business and can help you save time and grow your business to the next level.
However, it really saddens me the number of times I see women trying to build their own successful home business and taking the step to outsource some work, only to be ripped off.
I constantly hear stories, where an agreement has been made only to find that very little of the work needed, is completed. The person hired, basically tries to do a runner with the money. So many times, freelances who promise the earth quickly lose interest or are unable to do the work to the standard required. Rather than admitting their inadequacies and refunding monies already paid, they start to ignore emails, phone calls and Facebook messages.
The person hiring is left with a looming deadline, out of pocket so financially unable to hire someone else and in a sense of abandonment and despair.
Please, if you are going to hire a freelancer, do a few things to protect yourself from the same happening to you.
Outsourcing tips
Agree to Terms and Conditions
Whenever outsourcing any work, before you do anything else agree clear, WRITTEN AND SIGNED, terms and conditions. This needs to include:
- the scope of the work with exactly what is going to be done by whom and when (including any information you need to supply to the freelancer),
- a deadline for the work to be completed,
- how much it is going to cost and
- what happens if either party is unhappy and wishes to cancel.
Do not rely on word of mouth and trust. So many times, agreements have been verbal as a person has seemed so wonderful and the relationship has been on trust, only for it to go horribly wrong. I have known ladies feel embarrassed about asking for T’s & C’s. Really? You are running a business and you need to protect it. If anyone tries to fob you off saying you don’t this, run for the hills.
Read reviews and testimonials
Read their testimonials and contact some of the people who have written them to make sure the reviews are genuine. Yes, it’s a sad world we live in that some people make them up.
Interview them
Interview them. Yep! You are hiring someone so it’s perfectly ok to speak to them and conduct an interview. Ask them what they would do if they had an emergency and couldn’t complete the work on time. Ask them how many times they have had cancellations or had to refund a client. You can tell a lot from whether they answer quickly and confidently or start to pause and stumble over their words. Listen to your gut feeling when speaking with them.
Start with a sample piece of work
Consider asking anyone you are outsourcing work to, to do a small sample piece of work so you can test out their standards and service. Don’t expect them to do this for free but pay them for a small section of the project that you need help with.
Pay in instalments
Pay in instalments. Don’t ever pay in full upfront. Agree on stage payments. That way, if something starts to go wrong, you can stop your payments until the situation is fixed. Alternatively, you can cancel the agreement altogether (again, make sure this is covered in your written contract.)
Look at payment options
Think about how you pay. If you use PayPal if there is a dispute, and you can prove your case, you should be able to get your money back within a reasonable timescale.
In essence, take time to do your research before hiring anyone and use the checks above before signing on the dotted line and handing over your hard-earned money. I’ve been bitten myself in the past, so I am speaking from experience. It’s horrible when it happens but it makes you much savvier when hiring in the future.
Do you have a story to share on your own experience? Leave a comment below. I would love to hear about it whether good or bad.
