“They say don't judge a book by its cover, but my gut feel was ‘she looks like a piece of work’.”

Minal Patel, an email marketing adviser, specialising in helping small businesses, discovered that trusting her gut was more valuable than any contract when a high-profile international client nearly derailed her confidence a few years into running her consultancy. 

The setback began as what seemed like a breakthrough opportunity. Minal had been invited to speak at her first international conference and was thrilled when she was approached afterwards about potential work. 

This is her story 

"I was so excited about getting a lead from this talk because I've never been asked to speak abroad," explains Minal. However, her initial reaction about the client proved prophetic: "They say don't judge a book by its cover, but when she was introduced at the conference, my gut feel was 'she looks like a piece of work', but I went against that instinct because I was so excited about getting a lead from this international conference." 

The client signed a proposal for two days of email marketing training for her team and wanted to pay all of it upfront. But that didn’t sit well with Minal, so they agreed on 50% upfront and the remainder plus expenses on completion.  

But red flags emerged immediately. The client changed the agenda last-minute, failed to attend herself and her staff repeatedly disappeared or arrived late for the training sessions. 

However, the real ordeal began after Minal submitted her final invoice. Although her husband tagged along, Minal’s invoice only included her portion of expenses and flights.  

"On a Friday evening, these emails just popped up one after another, querying everything," Minal recalls. "One email said, 'I wasn't paying you to come out here and booze on my money' and honestly, if you talk to anybody who knows me, they know I'm not like that. I am not a p*ss-taker.  

“One of the cornerstones of my business is to deal with everyone with integrity and honesty. And if I can't help them, I'll tell them upfront and point them in the direction of someone who can." 

The client sent approximately 10 separate emails disputing different aspects of the work and expenses. And the psychological impact was devastating. Minal’s husband came to the rescue, writing responses to each email, as she was worried that this client was influential enough to ruin her reputation. 

Minal dealt with the situation a bit differently. She explains: “I'm a bit opposite to other people in that when they have a problem, it keeps them awake at night. When I have a problem, my brain just wants to shut down. So, I was getting a good night's sleep.” And that worked in her favour to some extent.  

But when she was awake, it was on her mind constantly. “It took my energies away from other clients because I was so consumed by this person having so much hold over me," she continues.  

Minal sought legal advice through her FSB membership and eventually emailed the client stating her details were going to be passed over to a debt collection service. The invoice was paid after two days, but the damage to Minal’s confidence was profound. 

The ordeal affected her for weeks, making her overthink subsequent client interactions. "For a good few weeks afterwards, I kept replaying things in my head, 'I should have done this or said that', then you start second guessing yourself," she says. “I want to do good for small businesses and I feel like she just zapped all of that out of me and made me feel so tiny and bad about something that wasn’t my fault.”  

In fact, Minal discovered she was actually not alone after she contacted other speakers from the same event who had also worked with the same client. "One of them came back and said she'd done exactly the same thing to her," Minal explains. 

It was a turning point. Rather than viewing the experience as purely negative, Minal transformed it into a powerful business lesson about client selection and trusting your gut. 

She reflects: "Since then, when I've had people want to work with me and I've got that sense of 'this is going to be trouble', it hasn't mattered how much money is involved. There's no money in this world that is enough to make me feel how she made me feel. 

"Now, if I have to turn business away, I turn it away for my own peace of mind, my sanity and because what I want to do with my business is to do good for small businesses.” 

Years later, Minal credits this difficult experience as the catalyst that taught her to prioritise her values and instincts, a lesson that has made her business more sustainable and authentic in the long run. 

She says on a final note: “The main reasons I decided to start my business was because when I was employed, I would see people like me taking money off people, small businesses and not delivering anything. And I wanted to be the person that they could trust, even though they had to pay me that they could trust me to help them and all I was trying to do was help her.”