If you do nothing else in your business dealings, you MUST communicate with those you are working with.  I recently suffered through an episode where a client simply stopped being in touch….no email replies, no phone call answers, nothing.  I still, to this day, have no idea why this happened, but it caused more headaches for me and my business than anything I’ve experienced in 17 years in this career!

I think that sometimes people think that they are better off avoiding difficult or unpleasant situations.  It is possibly human nature to avoid situations where someone could get upset or angry, or even just be disappointed.  But experience has shown me that avoiding such a situation only makes things much worse in the long run.

I just want to know.  If you’ve had a disaster and suddenly cannot pay, then just drop me  a line and let me know.  Something as simple as “I’m so sorry but things have gone really badly and I cannot make this payment….I will be in touch again very soon.”  This is bad news, but at least now I know and can move forward accordingly.

Just let me know!  If you have a problem and are not sure you can fulfill a commitment, at least let me know.   Then we can work on this together.  I may not like the bad news, but I always appreciate and honor the person who can let me know right away.  Then we can all start to figure out what to do next.

I admit there was a time in my life when I tended to avoid some potentially unpleasant things, and this caused me much heartache and embarrassment.  So I encourage you to move past these tendencies and just be honest and up front, no matter what the situation.  Everyone will be very glad you did.