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Transcripts
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Hey there, and welcome back to another episode of Sam's Sidebar, where I tackle your
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essential legal questions about online business in ten minutes or less.
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This week, you'll get a hot legal tip about what to do if a client quits or you want to
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fire them.
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this week's question came from our listener, Angie.
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Angie said, "I had my first coaching client quit just over halfway through my program.
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She did not do the work.
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However, I did.
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A lot of it. She was one of my more needy clients.
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So much of our interactions were conversations and encouragement through texts.
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My question is this, since she quit or had I fired her, I think she knew it was coming
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because she broke up with me first, do I reimburse her for the latter half of the program?
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Or if she refuses to make her last few payments - she's on a payment plan - what can I
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do?"
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I wish I could give you a big hug because I just really want to normalize this.
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And every time I talk about clients not paying people or people not paying your invoices,
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I always want you to know how common this is.
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I don't mean it's happening all the time, but it at least happens once to everyone.
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It happens at some point to everybody in business, me included.
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So, not all client relationships go smoothly.
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And every single coach, every friend that I've had, has had someone "quit".
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I also wanted to normalize this idea that, like, halfway through your coaching program,
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this person was like, "Thanks.
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I don't need you anymore." That is so painful when it happens and it's so normal.
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So, I just want you to know both of those things.
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think that it's important for us to talk about this more because I don't ever want
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somebody taking it personally.
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Instead, I want you to kind of shift into what can I do about this.
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I mean, first of all, knowing what your rights are, which is what we'll talk about today,
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but also like what can you put in place in the future so that hopefully this doesn't
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happen again.
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here's the good part, I guess.
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The good part about being your own boss is that you get to decide how to handle stuff like
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this. So, of course, there are certain legal rights and obligations that you have.
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But when it comes to refunds, for example, if it feels better for you to release this
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person and move on, that's okay.
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That is totally okay.
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I'm a lawyer. Yes, I write refund policies and all this kind of stuff.
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Yes, I do go after people who don't pay sometimes and all that kind of stuff.
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But I've also chosen not to, and I've also encouraged friends or colleagues not to as well
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sometimes.
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totally fine, too - as long as you have the right contract with that language in it -
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which all of my contract templates do - you also have the right to refund that remaining
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time.
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time would 100 percent be the right thing to do and the legal requirement.
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So, if you're three months into a six month coaching package with a client and you cancel
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on them, you're going to have to give them the remaining money back.
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You're not going to get to keep that.
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since she quit, the client quit in this case, you can decide whether or not you'd like to
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enforce that contract language or not.
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So, if she doesn't pay her remaining payments and then you've tried collecting them from
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her yourself, you could explore collections if you wanted to, either through an attorney
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- not me - or a private collections company.
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There are even online companies for this now.
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When you submit somebody's failure to pay you or pay you on time to collections, you'll
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need a legitimate contract to prove that the person agreed to pay that amount on that
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date. So, if you use PayPal or something similar to process people's payments, I have
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seen complaining clients be successful these days against coaches in issuing chargeback
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threats. That's where they complain to PayPal that they want a refund even though they
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know they signed a contract saying no.
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Typically, if the service hasn't been offered yet, then PayPal will actually give them the
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refund.
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Like, "How dare you suggest to send good people to collections?" Or like, "You have us
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have refund policies but then say it's okay not to enforce them?
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What a joke." Honestly, the deal is I find my role here, in general, to give you the
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buffet of options and then you can decide what to do.
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It's not about me telling you what to do.
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And the truth is that there's not a right or wrong answer.
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answer in life is not always to go to somebody's throat.
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You know, that's not always the answer.
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And sometimes it is.
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Sometimes you are justified to do that too - well, I shouldn't even say that.
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You are justified to do whatever you want to do.
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But sometimes one of those options makes more sense for you than the other.
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point is to make decisions that are for you and not based on what you think you should
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do or make a decision because you don't think you're allowed to do it.
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So, that's where I really just see my role here is educating you for what the options are,
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and then you can decide.
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And that just starts with knowing what your rights are.
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I think it's really empowering to walk away too.
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me, the best approach in general is prevention.
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So, having legally legit contracts that are in place early on will chase away, try it
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before they buy it clients.
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And that same contract will be what you'll use later to either try to collect the payment
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yourself or submit it to collections because you're going to need it, like I said.
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right. So, I hope that my answer to Angie's question was helpful.
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If you need to grab a last minute legal template, like a contract or a website policy
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that you can write off - it's a write off if anybody watches Schitt's Creek before Q4 -
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you can visit my legal template shop on my website, samvanderwielen.com/shop.
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And keep in mind that when you decide to upgrade to the Ultimate Bundle, I credit the
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cost of any template that you've purchased from me that's already included in the
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Ultimate Bundle. So, you have that fun thing coming for you.
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right. Thank you so much for joining me for another episode of Sam's Sidebar.
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Check out the show notes below for related blog posts, resources, and my full episodes of
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On Your Terms, which are every single Monday.
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as always, if you have a question for me that you want answered on a future episode, you
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can submit it using the link for Sam's Sidebar Q&A below.
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Thank you so much. I'll chat with you next week.
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so much for listening to the On Your Terms podcast.
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Make sure to follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to
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podcasts. You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links, and more
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at samvanderwielen.com/podcast.
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can learn more about legally protecting your business and take my free legal workshop,
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Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow Your Online Business, at samvanderwielen.com.
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And to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram, @samvanderwielen, and send
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me a DM to say
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hi.
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remember that although I am a attorney, I am not your attorney and I am not offering you
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legal advice in today's episode.
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This episode and all of my episodes are informational and educational only.
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It is not a substitute for seeking out your own advice from your own lawyer.
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And please keep in mind that I can't offer you legal advice.
