Hi Reader! Every year, about tax time, the LLC and s corp questions start rolling in. Things like, “Should I become an LLC?” “How do I create an s corp? “What’s the difference between an LLC and an s corp?” “What’s a reasonable salary for an s corp owner? Most of these answers are pretty straightforward, Deciding if an LLC is right is the ultimate Mama bear question: “Are there things you would fight to the death to protect if something went wrong in your business?” Deciding if it’s time for…
Want a business that feels calmer? The answer is small improvements that compound. Simple practical tweaks that support your workflow.
Hi Reader! As I mentioned a few weeks back, at the beginning of the year, I switched over to Honeybook. I’m using it primarily for contracts and invoicing. But this switch has been a good opportunity to look at my onboarding with fresh eyes. Onboarding isn’t just a set-it-and-forget-it system. It needs to grow, evolve, and change along with your business. While migrating my onboarding system, I identified a couple of areas that needed tweaks. One tweak was something that I used to do, and for…
How you onboard new clients sets the tone for the project. But is your onboarding system stuck in the past? Learn 4 common onboarding gaps even experienced creatives make.
Hi Reader! If you are keeping up with the Business Hangups note I suggested a few weeks back, you might have noticed requests for out-of-scope or free work. They sound harmless. Can you just tweak this? Could you make this tiny adjustment to the file? Could you hop on a quick call? Would you be available to meet for coffee? Each request feels small, but they stack. As your business grows, your vulnerability to these requests also grows. Because you’re established, your clients, peers, and…
Learn the 3-step response framework for handling out-of-scope requests and protect your time, profit, energy, and client relationships.
Hi Reader! The past few months, I’ve been wrapping up the last MCLEs I needed for my bar license renewal. And one of the sessions I attended was on client communication. Because it’s something all service providers need reminders about. There were two big themes of the session: bad news doesn’t get better with time you need to set communication expectations that align with the work Both of these were lessons I noted early on in my “Stuff I’ll Never Do Again” book. The first is obvious: if you…
Learn the three client expectation frameworks experienced creatives use to keep projects predictable, not drifting based on client whims.
Hi Reader! You might know about my “Stuff I’ll Never Do Again” Notebook. (If not, I tell the story in this week’s blog post.) The short version is that every time a client situation doesn’t sit right, I jot it down: what happened, how I responded, how I felt, and what I could do differently next time. Over the past 15 years, it’s been my favorite tool to spot patterns about what isn’t consistently working in my business. The real power of the notebook wasn’t in venting about what went wrong….
When I started my business, I was given a notebook to record my business mistakes. This notebook has transformed my client relationships.
Hi Reader! When I update a contract for a client, one of the things I’m often doing is inserting boringly specific language. Far too often, creative business owners try to provide flexibility in their contracts by using vague or ambiguous terms. They use things like “reasonable turnaround” or “as quickly as feasible”. But this vague or ambiguous language has multiple meanings. And it’s highly likely that you and your client aren’t on the same page about their meaning. A client who deals with…
Your contract is just not legal paperwork. It’s your operating system for client relationships. Even experienced creatives often use contracts that look solid on the surface, but quietly create friction. Maybe payment terms are technically there, but not specific enough to prevent delays. Maybe ownership language is copied from a template that no longer matches […]
