Giving refunds is a relief
May. 12th, 2020 04:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soniaWhen I first moved to Portland 15 years ago, I was having a hard time getting my business going, so I hired a business coach, Kaya Singer, for three months for $1000. I was happy I did it, and also ready to stop at the end of the three months. She gave me help and structure for putting my website together, including a space for articles that I didn't use right away, but that I've certainly used extensively once I started.
It's a standard practice for coaches to offer a series of sessions rather than individual sessions, to force people to commit and keep them from running away when it gets hard. I am not at all interested in either of those motivations. I don't want to be seeing anyone who doesn't want to be there, whether or not it would be "good for them" to continue.
I thought about her advice about series and decided to offer fully refundable sets of 4 sessions with a $10 discount per session. Gives long-term clients a discount, and reduces the hassle of processing payments and checks for me.
This means that when I suspended my practice in mid-March, I was holding funds for several clients with partly-used series. Ordinarily if someone wanders off without using a full series, I wait for them to ask for a refund, rather than running after them trying to give their money back. However, closing my practice was my decision (and the government's) rather than theirs.
Today I texted everyone with a series, let them know it would be a while before I reopen my in-person practice, and offered them refunds. Square makes it easy to refund partial payments back to the card they used. All the refunds add up to just about the amount of the "stimulus" payment, so I guess that's what I'm using it for.
It feels surprisingly good to have cleared that up. It felt like a bunch of debts hanging over me, and I don't like being in debt. Now I don't have to worry about people suddenly calling those in, because it's all taken care of. It tidies up my accounting.
It also feels good to spare people the awkwardness of asking me for their money back when we're all trying to be mindful of keeping small businesses going. It feels congruent with how I want to do business.
I feel surprisingly calm about my bodywork business being disrupted. I've been poking at the possibility of getting a part-time tech job again, but more because I feel like I should than because it feels urgent. My online practice is increasing as people realize it's going to be a long time before in-person sessions are safe. For once, knowing that I have what I need in the moment feels like enough, without worrying about the future. Or maybe the future feels so completely up in the air that I can't begin to worry about it.
It's a standard practice for coaches to offer a series of sessions rather than individual sessions, to force people to commit and keep them from running away when it gets hard. I am not at all interested in either of those motivations. I don't want to be seeing anyone who doesn't want to be there, whether or not it would be "good for them" to continue.
I thought about her advice about series and decided to offer fully refundable sets of 4 sessions with a $10 discount per session. Gives long-term clients a discount, and reduces the hassle of processing payments and checks for me.
This means that when I suspended my practice in mid-March, I was holding funds for several clients with partly-used series. Ordinarily if someone wanders off without using a full series, I wait for them to ask for a refund, rather than running after them trying to give their money back. However, closing my practice was my decision (and the government's) rather than theirs.
Today I texted everyone with a series, let them know it would be a while before I reopen my in-person practice, and offered them refunds. Square makes it easy to refund partial payments back to the card they used. All the refunds add up to just about the amount of the "stimulus" payment, so I guess that's what I'm using it for.
It feels surprisingly good to have cleared that up. It felt like a bunch of debts hanging over me, and I don't like being in debt. Now I don't have to worry about people suddenly calling those in, because it's all taken care of. It tidies up my accounting.
It also feels good to spare people the awkwardness of asking me for their money back when we're all trying to be mindful of keeping small businesses going. It feels congruent with how I want to do business.
I feel surprisingly calm about my bodywork business being disrupted. I've been poking at the possibility of getting a part-time tech job again, but more because I feel like I should than because it feels urgent. My online practice is increasing as people realize it's going to be a long time before in-person sessions are safe. For once, knowing that I have what I need in the moment feels like enough, without worrying about the future. Or maybe the future feels so completely up in the air that I can't begin to worry about it.
