The stories of my journey as an entrepreneur goes far and wide. In this journey there have been some fabulous associations and pitfalls, both contributing immensely to the decisions and policies in the company and many-a-life lessons learnt. This series is a forum where I will share some of the life & thought changing experiences and stories with clients, people and organisations who I have encountered through this beautiful journey. The first in this series is the most recent rather current episode.

Droplet versus Deal

Decisions– Small & simple or major & complex, they always impact our lives in multiple ways. As an entrepreneur knowing what decisions to take when, comes only with experience and should never be impulsive or compulsive.

On Wednesday this week, there was an unplanned meeting with a client through a business associate with whom we have been working for over 2 years. He took us for the first time to his client who wanted Ad copies to be written for a newspaper ad where they launching their new project.

We met, discussed and I had to cancel my other meetings to spend time with them to comprehend and put up a concept map for the ad series. The key person in this organization, a young chap, just out of college with one year of work experience was sitting down with me for the making of the concept.

I gave them many options and finally after many rounds of debates and discussions- a concept was finalized and was put in place. So the graphic representation was discussed with them and they agreed with everything. Since their designer was not present during the meeting, I took up the onus of translating the same discussion and my thought onto a google spread sheet which they could share with their designer and while we created content for the Ad copy, he would work on the designs. Apart from this they also had some requirement for articles to be written for their advertorial series.

Quotation sent, Graphic description written on Thursday, Friday we receive the advance and work begins full-fledged. My team begins work while I am working on getting the right ad copy as the client was particular that it has to be 5 or 6 words at the max and should be able convey the story line we had comprehended and the concept agreed upon.

We as a family had travel plans for the long weekend. I was organizing everything to be delivered flawlessly to the client even in my absence. We were to leave on Saturday early morning with a huge group of friends.

Friday evening I uploaded the Ad copy content on the drive, I kept telling the client to check what we have been doing and so it can fasten up as I had already told them that I was leaving on Saturday.

Friday at 9pm he calls in to say that he has issues with the copy, the concept and the graphic description and wants to discuss. We sat down to discuss it over a call. The call began and all hell broke loose.

He said that he then had problems with the already finalized concept and wanted me to sit with him in his office the very next day to brainstorm and discuss. I told him we can do it over a skype call and do screen sharing as it was already 9.30pm [by then].

That’s when it all started. They were not willing to do this over Skype, and wanted me to go to their office and when I told them that I was travelling.I assured them that I would arrange for my team member, who was equally competent to complete the task at hand.

Initially they agreed. When I asked them for the location, they said that they didn’t want to go ahead with us anymore and wanted me to return their money.

Shocked with their drastic step, I tried everything in the world to convince them and even told them that I will cancel my program if they wanted me to.

On one side was my family, my vacation, my much deserved break to heaven on earth Chikkamagaluru- On the other hand was this hard deal[not a million dollar one yet, but may have turned to be, I don’t know].

Even when I told them that I am willing to forgo my trip and was willing to sit with them till they were fine with the content, they decided to drop it.

Stressed, upset, unable to think what my next step would be, I picked my vacation to meet the droplets and let go the deal.

Reason:

Deals and droplets are a dime a dozen. But the key here is the experience that will follow after each decision.

Deal– Had I chosen to forgo my trip and despite all the hassles still tried to convince them to allow me one chance to work with them, the strained relationship and their uncourteous behavior of being so brutally illogical with the lamest excuse possible would have never worked. Their disrespect for my efforts and time was unacceptable.

Droplets– I enjoyed every minute of being here. Wonderful place and a fabulous experience. The stress of the deal getting cancelled percolated to the trip, it was relaxing and rejuvenating with endless hours of laughter and merry. Being with my family has always been the best decision to take.

The misfortune:

They wanted me to refund what they had paid keeping with me money for my efforts. When I did pay them back, they were not happy with what I had returned saying that I hadn’t returned the GST.

Well, after haggling with the client I realized its worthless to talk to a man who doesn’t care about creativity, so decided to return the GST as well. To my misfortune, due to network error the bulk amount that I had initially transferred recurred and got paid twice to the client, now along with the GST. Unfortunately it’s the same bank account and the bank gave up on being able to do anything.

Phew, this is called disaster arriving. So while on vacation, I am juggling with multiple challenges.

And now, the client has barred my calls after receiving the double the amount in his account.

Not sure if I can trust the man to return the excess amount transferred, not sure what I can do. Amidst this ambiguity of so much money at stake, I am trying to keep my mental balance and enjoying my vacation knowing for sure that- This too shall pass & I will figure out some way to get out of it.

A special thank you to my Dad and husband for making sure I fight with all my might and stay strong for tomorrow when the sun rises, a new day and a new set of hope and opportunity awaits me!