We had a car cleaner in our building. Good guy. Reliable. Been around for about a year.
He always collected payment in advance which was fine because we trusted him. During holidays when most of us were travelling and the cars sat untouched, we still paid him the full amount. No questions asked. That’s what you do when someone earns your trust.
Last week someone mentioned that the building’s cleaning contract had changed and asked him directly. You still going to be doing our cars?
Yes, he said. Definitely.
He then went around collecting payments from everyone in the building.
And disappeared.
Now the money itself was small. A few hundred dollars across the building. Nobody’s losing sleep over the amount.
But here’s what he actually lost.
A year of built-up trust. Gone. Every referral he’d ever get from anyone in that building. Gone. His name is now circulating as someone who took the money and ran. In a city where reputation travels fast, that follows him regardless of where he goes next.
All because he chose the transaction over the relationship.
And the thing that makes it sting is how easy the alternative would have been. If he’d just been honest and said “Look, I’ve been let go with no notice. I’m in a tough spot. Would it be possible to get one more month while I figure things out?” I would have said yes in a heartbeat. Most of us would have. Some would have given him more.
He would have walked away with money in his pocket, his reputation intact, and a building full of people actively trying to help him find his next opportunity.
Instead he grabbed maybe a hundred dollars or so and burned that year building trust and every bridge behind him.
Business owners make a version of this mistake more often than they’d admit. Squeeze a client on an invoice instead of having the honest conversation. Oversell to close the deal knowing you can’t deliver at that level. Cut a corner to protect a margin that won’t matter if the client never comes back.
Every time you choose the transaction over the relationship you’re doing exactly what the car cleaner did. Collecting a small win today and torching the compounding value of trust that was going to pay you back for years.
Relationships compound. Transactions don’t.
That’s one of the core principles inside Module 2 of Fall in Love with Your Business Again. Growth built on the kind of value that brings clients back without you having to chase them.
Pioneer pricing with a one time $97 payment for lifetime access to the program and all monthly meetings closes on 30 April.
After that it’s $997 for the program and $197 monthly for the monthly group cohort access.
Click here to claim your Pioneer Lifetime Spot.
——————
P.S. Feeling trapped in your business? Turn it into an Asset you love to run – and that investors want to own.
Join my list for blunt insights and practical strategies to build a business that gives you the life you want – starting today.