A Graceful Goodbye

In dog sports, you often have to sign up and pay in advance. And that payment is almost always nonrefundable. The reason is that people will sign up and just be a no show, leaving the venue with no payment and a spot that could have been occupied by a paying participant.

In business, it may be difficult to require full payment before an order is fulfilled. But there may be an opportunity to receive a down payment. If the relationship goes awry, for whatever reason, each party needs to be professional. Ghosting is not an accepted manner of ending a business relationship. It is unprofessional and just downright rude.

We recently experienced this first hand. A contractor started a job, said they would return, and never showed. Communication was not returned and they simply were a no show. They left a mess and required us to find someone else to assess the situation and come up with a resolution. It was very unexpected as we had dealings with this firm in the past that were satisfactory.

If you must end a business relationship, do it with dignity and exit with grace. If you do anything other than that, it may come back to you at some point. People talk, the business world is small, and reputation is important.

Do not be that firm that ghosts another. Be that firm that exits gracefully, with confidence, and with professionalism. A positive ending is always preferable.

Be well.