Everywhere i go there seems to be this genuine love for small business owner people. People praise us and loves us for having gotten our dreams started and creating products according to our beliefs values and culture . As a small business owner I want to take the time thank all the people who have cheered me on for years . Without your support i would be no where lets just be honest . But not a lot of people talk about the growing pains that comes from the entitled clients who also try to destroy us full throttle. I am going to be demonstrating the struggles we face when people like that come for us . So i have a catering business now . I decide to dedicate myslef the grow that side of my business it bring me to most joy . I have never gotten the chance to be so creative before . I am an instinct chef which means the moment i lay my eyes on an ingredient this loves story begins i start to visualizing all the ways i can cook it to perfection , all the things i can pair that ingredients with , what farmer I can get to grow me that product which is why i have a 30-45 day no cancellation policy . over the past 7 years I was selling my food at farmers market which helped establishes this steady relationship with me and the multiple vendor . We have a common trust factor , i dont even believ that some of them know my first name they just call me Pineapple girl for the most part. We have this unspoken bond we care for each other at the market , we try to help each other out , we trade products and provide products for each other clients when needed . it has always been that way i ask my vendors to save items for me and what location to deliver it too and that that . i never thought anything about the beauty of that realtionship until a client in her frustration tried to label me unrpofessional for not having all my vendors phone numbers . See our relationships are based on trust which means when i tell a vendor i am coming for something they just believe me and since i have always shown up the relatinship based on our words ahve never been rocked. Also if i am ever late on ordering and my favorote vedor runs out there are easily 3 other amzing farmers and vendors at the same location and i enjoy that . i still create a safety net for myslef by going to the market early enough to give them a date , then go on staurdays to pick up . that allows me to have the option of going to another market on sunday . after the market wholes foods is my second pick then
HEB my third but because of the variety i use i sometimes I have To go to all 3 stores.
Now lets get to the meat of the story. i had a client reach out to me and ask me to host a small dinner for her . i try not to take any dinner under 10 people unless someone is willing to pay a higher because here is the reality if you have lets say a group of ten at 50 per person and no chef chef that’s w whopping $500 that you have to figure out how to shop for 10 which would not cots you any less minimum half if you are shopping quality now for al the gas i pay to go to markets and the time it takes me not counting the planning executing and cleaning always come up to a minimu of 12 hours and at least $80 in gas which. I am grateful for any amount of money i make but earning $75 to 100 for a gig like that is not sustainable i wish 100 was enough to pay all my bills but its juts not . i wish i could tell my landlord that hey my client is only willin gto pay 100 can you adjust my rent but i unfortunalety cannot and here is the biggets thing you need to know abot small busniess owners our time is evrthign to us that is all we have . We dont have a steday trickle of income we make income accoring to how much time we spend , gowing our brands , growing our minds and working hard . so the moment we get a gig we have to stop working for other ways of making income to priotorize that client and when we say yes to you we say no to other oppotunioties. so even if i dont have a gig lined up fpr that dau i could ahve gone to. a growth seminar or a marketing oppotunity that would have led to s asale which is why we have to enforce cancellation policies this is how we protect ourselves because if we allowed eery client to cancel anytime they wanted we would be left with no income a debt from paying other vendors .
Now i am not one to complain but i have had enough this is the story of a client who tried to cancel her catering dinner 7 days before her event , offered me much grief for it and is now threathen to rob me of my efforts by finding a way to get a refund after i told her that the purchases have been made . People are incredible . about a month prior to the event the on july 10th see text message for proof she reached out to me and ask me to cater i highlited to her that because of the amount of people its really hard for me to go down in prices especially because of the way i source she said It would not be a problem .She gave ma range she was comfortable with paying for her group and assured me she wont expect any price decrease becasue i had shared with her how difficult it was me to accept small groups because of the dedication taht i have is costy . when i ran my restaurant for 6 months i had to go to 4-7 stores weekly costo, sam’s , trader joe, whole foods , hung phong , groomers , HEB at minimum evry week why . no one carries healthy food for caterer or restaurant coco aminos per example is so expensive i have friends on the look out for me texting me when they see a batch at costco so i can rush there with like 3 different wigs to purchase like 3 times the limit to have it stacked up . but its a joy for me to go find these ingredients knowing i am boosting your immune system and nourishing you as oppose to feeding you without the nutrition portion . Again knowing the amount of work i put in she told me that no matter what she will not be expecting a price decrease she would bring all the leftover to her husband. Because i believ in my brand i wrote her a solid menu (see picture )(see text message )
Now this this is literally 8 days before her event i get a text message from her saying that 2 of the girls had dropped out and now she was asking for price decrease ( please see text above that she clearly staed she would not ) because its would be $110 per person according to her math. i took the time to explain to her how my business works wether i drive to the farmers market for 1 person or 3 or 500 its still the same amount of time and gas to get there . And i had alreday invested quite od bit of time commitment by now it was 8 days before her event . And this is what i am realising people know me for being nice and loving to help so they love to come put demands on my life they you never put elsehwere . if you rented an airbn for a group of ten people and its non refundable will you all of sudden call them ans them them that because the amount of people not showing up is decreasing you will now be expected to pay less for the house because if you had rented it at 1,000 for 100 now they were going to make too much so they ahve to now charge you according to the amount coming so now the hosue should be 800 and obviously even tho you stiil have to pay the same cleaning fees it does not matter because the amount of guest i was expecting are no longer showing up . but people love to put higher requieremnst on loosing money ans time on th peopel group who need it the most . i also had ask her to sign th contract one more time which she clearly refuse to do because she knew she would try to low ball me in the long wrong to do her event for free . Which i would ahve tptally caved in before .
This was the first mistake i made showing kindness to a Bully by offering her a refund . this is the problem with bullies the moment you give them an inch your are done for . this it a 550 gig , i payed the taxes for her out of my pocket ( never doing that again ) . i clearly told her it was non refundable and there is no cancellation for 30 days but then because i am know as a push over and left the back door open here comes the bully . Now out of the money that she had given me which i had started to spend on her dinner already this is 8 days out yall but it gets better . in her text message she talks baout gas being a parameter for georgetwon people love to see what they want to see . being in georgetown was an expense i was going to stomach . the gas i was talkiogn about is the gas i spent going back and forth to fetch things and plan things so far i cnat excatly pull an event like thta out of my bottom 24 hours before no offense . now she went an quoted elsehwere for 95/100 per person at another resyaurannt and that hwere her head is at she says . okay So i quoted you original about $85 per person ans spent 21 days planning and getting ready and spendingidnmy time on this project and now i am suppose to go compare myslef to another place charging more 7 days before this event . You were no longer shopping around when you booked me whats happens if 10 days before all. my wedding i let my brides tell me well we know you alreday spent some money , time efforst ans we alreday said yes to you but we just saw that this guys is now more espensive then you but we have less people so we need you to take a loss and give us our money back . or you jjst have to accept the new number i am throwing at you tho you spent 21 days getting it together who cares . tho i also told you i would not wnat a refund bcak because i understad your hustle . please someone make it make sense . i took my time to explain to her taht the time commitment is the same and tho i charge per person thsi si what it would look like . but keep in mind we are past negotiations at this point . but instead pf sticking to my gins of no cancelaltion i gtried to acciomodate her .
now this is the next day its about 1:16 pm i alreday got my farmers market run done i am in top notch shape i have her spending recorded at about 200 so far . i am finishing the TODO list i ahve for her event item by otem , i am trying to figure out how i can save on the other missing products with this very tighht budget and here somes another text from her taht another girl has dropped out . i clearly told her i dont do cancelations yesterday and she agreed now here she comes again and i understood her story but did you also message airbnb that story ans tell them to now charge you less because people are not able to make it . so gthe catere has to take the fall i’m sorry but no my time is jsut as valuable as everyone elses in the net text she sent me tho i told her i alreday got the items she states that i now need to accept her offer of 400 for gthe night or i need to give her $500 back on what planet please and thank you you booked me for 7 saying you wont need a retrun had me get ready ans now i need to settel for 400 buck or give you back 500 tell me your a bully without telling me taht you area bully . then she proceeed to tell me to give her recipst so she can go pick uo all the food i ordered on my behalf which some of the food at this point was going to bedelivred at gerogetwon i mean i dont keep paper recipt now i have to go screenshots my credit card statemenbt for a client , and give her all my information so she can go pick up the food on my behlaf . i kept tryign to explai to her how i had things lined but she was hing up on the $200 i told her whcih i was also trying to tell her i had to go sit down and see what else i had alreday gotten , if i go to a store befroe an event and know i can save myslef a trip . i kept telloing her that i was trying to take gthe day oof as an entrepreneur i ahve been working on my spoon theory and i was completely out of poon already that day . now she sent me a last text telling me tahts shes trtyign to get the stpry straight and that she would pay me for the food if she got to keep it and give me 50 so now i am suppose to go wake up and work another 5 hours pick up stuff , get what was alraeday in the fridge ans drive 2 hours to new bruaunfels with proof od receipt so i can earn $50 for the 21 days i worked on thsi project . i’m sorry but i am no ones grocery butler . The answer to taht is simply no . and the only reason this has happen is becasue i am so use to letting people have tgheri way woith me this is where it stop just like an other business enttity you pay with a non refundable policy . but this is the year that i say no more you take my time and my effort you will unfortunately have to pay . i still was fully availle and i had already made purhcases up to date to no you unfortunately canoot get a refund from any other caterer 7 days befroe any event . so no just because i am young and a woman ans not a major company does not mean you get tp walk all ovr me sorry .
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