Hi, I’m Victoria Chemko, Founder of Umami Marketing. Endings are a common part of life, but once something needs to be “closed” so that you can move on to the next steps for you and your business, it can be hard to maneuver around the ending itself. There are a lot of things to keep in mind, to ensure you’ve learned all that you can from the experience, but also properly honour that part of your journey before moving on to the next phase.

From our past experiences, we’ve put together a few tips to help you ensure a smoother transition for any upcoming “endings” in your business or life.

Honour What Was

Projects and relationships don’t always last forever. They serve a time and a purpose in your life and business, and just because they’ve ended doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing – it may just mean that it’s leaving space to open things up for something new and different as you continue to grow. 

It’s important to appreciate what you had before you close it out and truly honour the time that together, what you learned, and show gratitude for it – it likely was a key stepping stone in some way, and when you look back at it in the future, that will potentially become more clear over time. 

Review Relationship Highlights

Take the time to review the client relationship or project and really think about all of the good that you took from it. What went well? What would you like to pursue more next time around? Depending on what it is that you’re closing out, you may even want to formally document this process and any feedback to gain an understanding of all that was accomplished during this time. Pass this along to any key stakeholders so what was achieved can be celebrated.

Create a Plan for Exit

In order to keep things simple and straightforward, it’s best to have a formalized plan for the exit. What needs to be transitioned for the closing of a business relationship or project to be a success? 

Are there processes that need to be handed off? Any documentation or training that need to be reviewed and passed along to the appropriate stakeholders?

Gather up information and assets and be prepared to outline and hand everything over that’s necessary for a smooth transition.

Summarize Assets to Transfer

Even during a shorter project of only a few months, to client relationships that last several years, there will likely be a lot of information that has passed from person to person and between your business and clients. 

Make sure that all of this information and any assets are well documented so they are easy to hand over. This may take some time, depending on the complexity of the project or relationship, so be thoughtful about what would be helpful for the other side or new stakeholders, and conduct this process professionally from beginning to end.  

Conduct Lessons Learned

All relationships, projects, and experiences serve to provide us with lessons to further our growth – either professionally or personally – and generally both.

It’s great to appreciate what went well, but it’s even more important to review what perhaps didn’t go as well, as any project or relationship shortfalls can become great learning opportunities for the future. Document these and use them to solve issues, or plan better processes or methods for the next project or relationship you move on to.

Summary

To summarize, here are some tips on how to best close out a project or client relationship:

1. Honour What Was
2. Review Relationship Highlights
3. Create a Plan for Exit
4. Summarize Assets to Transfer
5. Conduct Lessons Learned

Now that you know more about the importance of integrating shared values into your company, please check out our recent blog posts covering useful Inbound Marketing tips. If you liked this video, subscribe to the Umami Marketing YouTube Channel and the monthly Digital Marketing Postcard.

Photo Source: Masaaki Komori on Unsplash