196: When Things Go Wrong

the galleries. And at that point, her clients were supposed to choose which collection they wanted and pay for that collection. Before they were able to download anything. However, something in her gallery software had changed, sort of the default settings had changed. And she didn't know about it. And that change meant that several of her clients realized they were able to download their images without

paying so many of them did. As frustrating as it is when clients find a loophole, oftentimes, they will exploit it, even if they are good people at heart. So she in the process lost hundreds and hundreds of dollars and didn't realize that like she didn't get a notification about it. And until the next day. And she was devastated. Like here it was, this was before the holidays. And so that was money that she

was relying on. She was having to go back to her clients in an extremely, you know, sort of tough spot and say like, Oh, hey, you downloaded a thing, here's an invoice for it. And she was also doing battle with her gallery software, and having to kind of see if they would help her out and they weren't being you know, they were like, well, sorry, that that was the setting that it was on.

Anyway, she posted this as kind of just a cry for commiseration, like, there wasn't she wasn't really asking anyone in the Facebook group to help her. Although she was saying, like, let me know if you've had a situation like this, but she posted it over the weekend. And I have been trying really hard to stick to, you know, not going on social media too much, especially over the weekends. And so I didn't see that post

until Monday. And it was one of those things that just brought me back to how much I love the community of photographers that I've built. If you are not in the this can't be that hard Facebook group, I strongly encourage you to join it is a wonderful, very supportive group that stays on subject and is a very positive space. And they were giving her all kinds of supportive, helpful feedback.

You know, I've seen similar posts to this one in other photography groups out there on Facebook, and you know, other platforms, where people take the opportunity to berate each other about like, oh, you should have done this. And what are you crazy that there was none of that much to my you know, I'm I'm very glad, because then I would have to start getting all like, I don't want to be the boss but. But anyway, it didn't have to it was very supportive and wonderful. Nobody was

pointing fingers. But when I did get there, and when I read through everything I did feel compelled to weigh in. And my response was really well received. So I thought that maybe I would go ahead and put that into podcast form here so that more of you could file this away for the future. Because at some point, we are all in a tough spot like this, or we come across somebody else who's in a

tough spot like this. And I just wanted to have my take on how to handle situations like this out there for future reference. Welcome to this can't be that hard. My name is Annemie Tonken. And I help photographers run profitable, sustainable businesses that they love. Each week on the podcast, I cover simple, actionable strategies and systems that photographers at every level of experience can use to earn more money in a more sustainable way. Running a photography business doesn't

have to be that hard. You can do it. And I can show you how. So I have specifically chosen not to name names in this podcast. I'm not naming the person, the photographer that this happened to, nor am I calling out the software that caused the issue because the truth of the matter is that no human being running a business and no tool or software that we use to facilitate our businesses is fully immune to these kinds of problems.

They do happen, they come up and we have to deal with them when they do so I want to preface this episode by saying that I am not in any way trying to invalidate the feelings of anger or frustration. And or blame that you will feel when you find yourself in a situation like

this, right? Whether you feel angry about the tool that you're using, which may very well have failed you or feeling angry at your clients who have done something that if they were to really sit down and think about it, they would have to know was going to negatively impact you, a small business owner who has like, shown up and you know, cuddled their, their little kids or whatever like it, it can feel really devastating when someone breaks your trust like that as

though you were Walmart. And you know, you had accidentally charged a deeper discount on an item than you intended to, we know that that's not the way that works. We know that when somebody kind of screws us over, it has a really big impact on our not only our businesses, but also on kind of our energy to continue on with running a small business, right. So it can feel really, really personal.

The truth is, like I said, things will go haywire things will cost you money, these kinds of issues will periodically happen, no matter how careful you are. And no matter what software and systems you use, or don't use, I mean, I guess one solution would be like, I'm just going to do everything manually. Even if you do that you will run into problems where you end up getting taken advantage of or and end up on the losing end of

the stick, right. But from that 10,000 foot view that I'm so fond of, it is easy to sort of see that every once in a while we're all going to be in situations like this, right clients will screw you sometimes inadvertently, sometimes on purpose, your tech will fail. And you basically have to build those facts into your emotional and financial and business toolkit. On the other hand, you have to

avoid becoming so jaded. And so sort of grumpy about like, everybody's just out to, to, you know, screw me, that you scare off the great clients who exist out there, right, or get caught in the trap of feeling like you have to micromanage everything in your business and, you know, run everything manually, because you can't rely on software, right? The fact of the matter is that 95% of the time software works the way it's supposed to 90 ish percent of the time. Our clients are good people who are

not trying to screw us. So when you play the odds, that means that most of the times, things will work, people will treat you properly and respect your business and your boundaries, every once in a while it won't happen. So when I think about this, I, I tend to go back to my medical roots, right. And I think about a situation like this, like somebody coming into the emergency room with a giant bleeding wound, right, they have a car accident and

their leg is bleeding. And there's it's just a big, big mess. And there's this, you know, big hubbub in the emergency room. And everybody's kind of scrambling and running around. That's what it feels like in a way when you find some sort of big error in your business, especially if it has a big financial consequence. Right? So let's pretend that we're in the emergency room,

right? Somebody comes in with a leg that's bleeding freely, the first thing we need to do is put a tourniquet on the leg to try and reduce the blood flow. Right. And when I say blood flow, in this case, what I actually mean is your response, your anger, your feelings of distress and upset and, you know, whatever it is that you go into when when those kinds of things happen.

So when something like that happens to me, generally speaking, my tourniquet response, right is that if it's possible, I walk away from my computer for a while I sleep on it, you know, I don't I definitely don't respond to somebody in the moment. These are the kinds of things where unlike a bleeding wound, I know that you know, it's not a life or death situation. And if somebody has to wait till tomorrow to hear from me about it, things aren't really going to change. So I try to let my

blood pressure come down. Before I address the situation I want to get to a place where in my mind, even if I'm still upset, I know that like okay, this will be okay, we can work through it right? I have to let that initial rage or despair response wear off for a little bit very little good ever comes from trying to deal with a client or interface with a client or negotiate with a client when you

are angry. So the next step, once you've been able to kind of get yourself into that better headspace is to try to triage the bleeding. So a bandage would be the way that you would handle that in In an emergency room, but in this case, that would mean, you know, turning off the galleries where the clients were able to download their files, and you want to do that, that might be something that you did, maybe before you closed your laptop.

But if it's not something that's available to other clients like damages done, whatever you can walk away, but you want to stop people from creating more of a problem. And then you need to reach out to them to say, you know, there's been an error. And here's how we're going to address it, or I'm working on how to address it. And that bandage phase is really, it's intended to be kind of a stopgap measure, right, it's not going to necessarily

stop the bleeding entirely. But it will reduce it while you figure out what the solution the ultimate solution is going to be. The important thing here is to keep the tone, I like to say light, but serious. So you don't want to minimize the seriousness

of the situation. Especially if there is a an issue where someone has done something like your client has downloaded files they weren't entitled to you don't want to pretend like that's not a problem, because then they're going to turn around and be like what you said it was, you know, your fault or whatever, like, you don't want to go too far in that direction.

But you also don't want to be accusatory, because that's rarely going to be a way to, you know, to start a conversation where someone might have made an honest mistake, or maybe a dishonest mistake that once they're called on it, they kind of revisit and say, You know what, that really was wrong. And I want to make it right. If you accuse them of doing that on purpose, they're gonna get defensive, almost definitely.

And there's almost no way that that's going to resolve Well, you know, and you don't want to, as much as you want to get paid what you're owed in a given situation. You also don't want to turn $1,000 issue into something where somebody gets really mad, and they badmouth you leave bad reviews, you know, turn around and say, Actually, you owe me more money, because I'm so upset about the situation, right, you don't want to make that situation worse.

So your your bandage here is to reach out to them courteous, like, up, there's been a big problem, I'm looking into it, you know, I'll be back in touch. So that bandage is your sort of interim solution.

So again, once you've really surveyed the damage, and made a plan for how to move forward, and all that sort of thing, then you have to decide how that you know what you need to change in your business, whether it's software or, or just the way that you use your software in order to avoid those issues in the future, right. Finally, there is the healing process. A wound, like the one that this photographer had in her business doesn't really heal until you've learned whatever lesson you can

learn from it, right? And that process, that learning that introspection, that potential, you know, change of software or change of systems. It's not fun. It's not the reason that any of us got into business, but it is a part of our growth as business owners. And when you take the time to learn those lessons and build your business back stronger, it is a mark of resilience.

So hopefully, if you're listening to this right now, you are hearing it in a time and space where you're not in crisis mode, no one has just come rushing through the emergency room doors of your business, right. But I want you to remember this one, I want you to bookmark it, I want you to keep it handy so that when this happens next time, you can come back to this and follow these

steps in your own business. Or if you've got a friend who has a major issue arise in their business, feel free to share this one as like, hey, this sucks. I want you to pause and listen to this episode. So that you can process this in a way that helps you heal rather than causes further damage. Because really, that is sometimes the best that we can hope for in our businesses. Hope you guys have a great week. Well, that's it for this week's episode of This can't be that

hard. I'll be back Same time, same place next week. In the meantime, you can find more information about this episode, along with all the relevant links, notes and downloads at this can't be that hard.com/learn If you liked the podcast, be sure to hit the subscribe button. Even better, share the love by leaving a review on iTunes. And as always, thanks so much for joining me. I hope you have a fantastic week.