Lessons Learned: Sometimes Less is Just Less
By: Ellie Scott
Tags: Clients, Consulting, Learning, Small Business, Customer Experience

Ok, maybe my mistake wasn’t THIS bad. This is truly an awful thing.

I’m new at this whole running a business thing. There’s a lot to learn, and I’m grateful for my first clients who are putting their trust in me. Y’all are real nice.

Sometimes it’s difficult to provide concrete examples in the service-based business world. These are abstract things we’re doing here: how do I show the end result of updating a software system or redesigning a training guide? I made a little boo boo this month, but I learned a big lesson from it.

Here’s what happened: I was working with my dear friend Brian on building a grant package for a nonprofit. The goal is to be able to do the heavy lifting of the project one time, compiling all the essentials in one place to expedite grant applications. Ideally, this package would be something to share with prospective investors as well, so it’s important that it look professional. In our initial conversation, we agreed that by applying for our first grant we would be pulling together most of what we needed to make this happen. I built a proposal, sent it over for his review, and we were off to the races!

But were we really in agreement about how to reach the end result?

What I should have done was explain that I wanted to do the project in stages, and billed accordingly. Instead of sharing that thought, I assumed my client would agree that this was the smart decision; he knows how I think. While he agreed that the staging process made sense, the billing part didn’t for him. My fear of seeming incompetent made me almost botch the whole project.

Yikes. Double yikes.

We talked this out over the phone, and since we are both verbal processors, we hashed out a solution pretty quickly. I admitted my mistake, asked for WAY more clarification moving forward, and redirected the project. Thank goodness I’ve established good rapport with this client, or this could have gone south really quickly.

Before I started ANY more work that day, I took a few minutes to take stock of what I learned and could change in the future. Here’s a few of those things:

It’s ok if the project plan changes, but don’t keep that in your head. It’s up to my client and I to decide together how best to complete the task.

how best to complete the task. Share a visual of the finished project as part of the proposal, if you can. If not, share a detailed chart of the project flow.

of the project flow. Take notes of every call and update them in your client’s records. This will help to clarify missed points and eliminate mistakes .

. Provide updates on the completed progress BEFORE sending an invoice. That would have nipped the miscommunication in the bud.

Like I said, I’m new at this. Looking back, it makes total sense where I misunderstood my client’s needs. My simple mistake could have made me seem dishonest, when it was simply a lack of communication. I’m not beating myself up about it, but I definitely was embarrassed. An important lesson learned early? I’ll take that as a win.

Also, big thanks for being a gem, Brian.