As a (very) small business owner, it hits right to the heart when you come across a bad review of your business. Such a thing happened to me recently, and after much emotional grappling, I have come to terms with it and am trying to move on.
I'll start with a comment I read about employers today: they love seeing "entrepreneurship" on your resume, because it shows that you have personal accountability: taking your career into your own hands, rather than someone else's. And while I have built this wedding calligraphy business up from scratch since starting up five years ago, I am still one person. The buck stops with me - I made a mistake.
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| Calligraphy for Wedding Signs, $2 each |
In this review, the bride had some valid points. I had dropped the ball, we had some miscommunication, and while she said my work was beautiful (a compliment she didn't need to make when dissatisfied), it still cuts to the core when you put everything you are into a business. I take pride in my work, and my goal has always been to have the bride over-the-moon excited for what I've been able to do for her, and when that doesn't happen, I hate to see it.
On the other hand, I can dispute some other points made in this review: but what would that solve? The damage has already been done, time has passed, and nothing will be able to change her mind. For example, one of the issues she had with me was that the ink color I used was inconsistent: some envelopes looked "darker" than others, and that was the only issue she had...and I know for a fact that she was simply wrong. This then transformed to a slew of other errors I was hearing for the first time in her review, which don't really give her much credibility.
I will say that I love this business. 99.9% of the time, the brides I work with are amazing, sweet and so much fun to work with. I love being able to do my part in making their wedding beautiful - especially in that first moment that one of their guests receives their invitation and are blown away by the first impression, which I love to hear!
So, I'm back to blogging. Contrary to my super-critical, take-everything-personal side, that bad review hasn't done any damage at all to my business. In fact, the amount of business I'm doing has DOUBLED since this time last year - with brides finding me both online and through fellow vendor and past bride referrals. All this makes me understand that I have high quality work, and shouldn't let one crazy bridezilla (okay, that was immature but makes me feel a bit better ;) stop me from doing what I love to do.
I continue to look forward to working with my brides, and doing whatever I can to make them happy!
Thanks to all my fabulous brides for being you,
Ashley
