October 24, 2017
As the age of “Greed is good” has morphed into an “era of relationships,” so has the language we use. Terms and phrases evoking collaboration, cooperation, and working for mutual gain abound. You see it in the marketing pieces and hear it in the vernacular of small business owners. From a business point of view, it’s a welcome change in attitude. There’s only one problem: some of these feel-good terms are “word wranglers” that have a legal meaning very different, or more complex, than their users intend. Accurate communication is crucial, especially in business. A wrong word, a misunderstood term, could mean the difference between a happy customer and a lawsuit. Four of the frequently-used word wranglers are: 1. Partner/partnering. As currently used, “partner,” and its gerund form “partnering,” tend to refer (vaguely) to a host of business relationships or forms of close collaboration. Why is partnering any closer than any other form of collaboration? It isn’t, necessarily, but the feeling we get by saying “we’re partnering together” – note the power of words, here…
Continue ReadingQ.: I own a small hair salon. A customer recently received services, then said she forgot her wallet and would return later in the day with her payment. She never came back. She has done…
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