Business Relationships that Just Don’t Work

I have just come out of a client relationship that just wasn’t working. But it took me a long time to make that jump… a really long time. It took me about five months of knowing that the relationship was not working before I actually took that leap of faith and ended it. I have heard fellow VA’s say that they know when a relationship is wrong when they feel a cold chill run down their back anytime an email comes in from that client. Well my object of terror was Skype, LOL! Whenever I would hear the ping that indicated that a Skype chat message had just come through I would jump inside and then immediately sink into despair.

Please don’t think that this client was a monster, I take full responsibility for this relationship because:

1. I did not conduct a proper interview – I am soooooo ashamed to admit, but I skipped the second part of my interview process. What we in AssistU describe as covering the deeper questions. I let those deeper questions slide, I didn’t truly probe how she worked on a deeper and more subtle level.
2. I lapsed on my standards during our working relationship – there are obviously going to be times in our working relationships with our clients, colleagues, fellow team members when a standard gets stepped on. I like to think that 90% of the time this happens unwittingly, and unknowingly and all I have to do is re-confirm what my standards are. It seems simple, but it sometimes feels like a really hard thing to do.
3. I stayed for too long – I knew this relationship was not working within the first two months. I knew because of points no. 1 and no. 2 above. And I should have made the move much, much earlier. But I have this belief that if people work at a relationship it can be fixed. Of course, my business coach asked me “where did you get such a crazy idea?”

You see business relationships that don’t work are not simply unpleasant experiences, especially when they are on a 1:1, as is the typical VA/Client relationship. My experience was that:

• It knocked my self esteem as I felt my skills were lacking
• I lost confidence in my ability to be a great and equal business owner
• The most important factor is rather than move forward with my business as I had been up to this point, I actually started to move backwards

So I implore you – set high standards and stick to them, create a proper interview process and always follow through and when the inevitable happens, and you do meet that client who does not fit well with your business, get out quickly. Thankfully in AssistU, students learn just this in the Virtual Training Program, and for those of us who forget or need a refresher Stacy Brice teaches supplemental classes on just these subjects, so we are definitely in the best place to learn and continue to be moxieful business owners.