Wednesday Wisdom: The Financial Seesaw

Wednesday Wisdom, Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses

Both phones were ringing almost at the same time. Quickly answering them, both sons were calling frustrated by a cancellation in a return flight from Denver back to New York City. Headlines in the previous day’s newspaper warned of cancelled flights at the start of the summer season due to limited staff. The airline would only refund my boys half their fees and then they had to pay for overnight accommodations since the airline did not have anything to offer them. Quite angry they swore off the company.

A day later a text message rang on my phone from a woman needing to cancel an already paid for adventure we had planned together. With a no refund policy from the adventure company, I knew it might be hard to get our money refunded but I tried anyways. A helpful, friendly girl quickly agreed to giving us back our money and sent me on my way content.

Later in the evening sitting in a cool outside amphitheater, my husband and I enjoyed one of this Father’s Day gifts, seats resold from a cancelled Doobie Brothers Concert the year before due to Covid-19. Our seats had excellent views and cost less than they would have due to rescheduling from the year before which made us happy.

There is always a seesaw effect when it comes to money. Sometimes we win and other times we lose. It might be our fault for winning or losing cash or someone else’s cause. The thing to remember is the seesaw never stays down or up always changing and trying to balance itself out.

Luckily for my sons, I had enough bonus points to fly them home from Denver without it costing them anything. Luckily for me and my client, the adventure company had a friendly cancellation policy. Fortune again gave my husband and I prime seats on a beautiful June night due to a flexible rescheduling policy.

Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to remind you that sometimes you win in money scenarios, and sometimes you don’t. Keep in mind, in most cases if you ride the wave (aka seesaw) long enough you end up balanced having lost nothing more than time. So choose wisely when you purchase anything these days, especially airplane tickets, and ensure there are solid refund policies in place to protect your purchases.

Similarly, as a woman entrepreneur, make sure you have strong refund policies in place to protect you and your customers. Be fair. Be flexible. Think how you would feel if you couldn’t get money back from an unfortunate ordeal that was out of your or their hands.