Make profit not losses

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Customers can be funny sometimes, if you are a business owner then you would understand what I mean by this, some clients can make you as a business owner rethink a decision you might have made initially, this is because certain situations come up and then this makes you question yourself

I sometimes ago had a situation with someone I had made a cake for, as you know I am a baker, a hobby baker actually, I usually bake mostly for friends and family members, so there was this outside client I had, she was related to me in any way, someone had recommended me to her after we had agreed on the cake design and all, she asked me to give her a cost of how much it would cost, and because I don't like charging my customers, this is because I sometimes have sympathy for them, because of the situation of the country, so after I made my costing the only extra added cost I added was about 1000naira[1$ plus] the reason I did this was also that the person who had asked her to come to me was very close and she had already explained to me that I shouldn't charge her too much as she wasn't very buoyant. And from the goodness of my heart, I really gave her a fair deal.

Everything she was to pay for the cake was about 8000naira , this was fro a three layered cake with foundant covering, but then the unthinkable happened, when it was time for her to pay for the cake, she paid half 4000naira and said she would balance it when the cake was done, my mistake here was that i didn't tell her it would be an added cost if i were to deliver to her house, it really pained me a lot, as after the cake was done she expected me to deliver it to her house , and then i told her she didn't pay for delivery and i had already used my money in finishing the job for her ,the transportation fare from my house to her bus stop to be and back to my house would have been around 1500naira cause of the distance, so she assured me she would pay me, on getting to the bus stop to where i was going to deliver the cake (she had given the address) , i still had to wait for her for another 30minutes as she wasn't there yet and when she finally came i was really upset as she gave me just 4500naira instead of 5500naira, i kept my calm and told her the money wasn't enough ,and she said that was all she had, but it wasn't what we had agreed on.

I angrily left, so that job was a loss to me, so since then I never used my money to prepare a cake for anyone except they are family, I don't take pity on any customer anymore because at the end of the day, i end up being at lost , this is why I altogether stopped baking for now until i get all my equipment complete.

This issues with client has made me changed my own principle of attending to my customers, though some say i might be harsh , but that's not so , it is because of what has been done to me by customers , and that's why i changed too.so do what please you in your business, and also what may benefit your customers , but it shouldn't be at the expense of your own profit