Today on the podcast we're having a bit of a change … instead of Suzanne interviewing a guest, she shares her personal experience of what happened in the early days of setting up her own business and how, due to being too busy and not thinking that something would happen, she ended up not having the right legal protection in place, which almost ended in financial disaster.
Suzanne trained and practiced at the world's largest law firm, specialising in mergers and acquisitions and private equity - a field that notoriously involves a lot of hard work, massive amounts of adrenaline, long hours and endless late nights.
Knowing she wanted to start a family, Suzanne quickly realised that working 20-hour days was unsustainable and not conducive to her having the work life balance she dreamed of.
Having always had an entrepreneurial streak, Suzanne thought long and hard about what she could do which would work hand in hand with looking after a growing family. So, the Small Business Legal Academy was born … and quickly thrived… as she gained a reputation as the small business go-to legal expert with a primarily female focussed audience gained through a powerful network of mumpreneurs.
However, an early spanner in the works – a non-payment of a £5,000 invoice - meant make or break for Suzanne's fledgling enterprise and, ultimately, the possibility of returning to the corporate world – one which made her feel sick to the core.
In this episode, Suzanne shares exactly what happened… as she recognises herself - this was a real wakeup call - one that she learnt from and, as a result, has never repeated, by putting in place a very simple but watertight clause in her contracts.
She also shares some tips and insights on effective ways you can get paid if you're also running into issues with your invoicing, and how, especially today in a time of economic uncertainty, to put in place the tools to help you get paid in full, on time, every time.
In this episode:
[1:04] Suzanne shares the story of how she trained in the world's largest law firm, why she left, and how she decided to get into business for herself by starting her own legal consultancy.