So Your Client Wants to Pause… Here’s What to Do

So Your Client Wants to Pause… Here’s What to Do How to Handle Pause Requests Without Panicking, Protect Your Income, and Keep Clients in Your Corner.

Nothing shakes a freelancer’s confidence like hearing “We need to pause.” In this episode, I walk you through exactly how to respond, no panic, just practical scripts, mindset shifts, and contract strategies. You’ll learn how to stay calm, use your contract to protect boundaries, and reframe pauses as opportunities to reflect, reset, and rise.

Topics Covered In This Episode:

1. Stay Calm & Ask Quality Questions: Avoid worst-case assumptions—gather facts first.
2. Contracts Are Your Shield: Always know if you have a pause clause; if not, add one.
3. Cap Pause Time at 90 Days: Protect your income, pricing, and energy.
4. Payments Continue During Pause: Keeps cash flow predictable and prevents scramble scenarios.
5. Reframe Pauses as Opportunities: Use the downtime to refine, pitch, or simply recharge.

Find the full show notes at:  https://brandimowles.com/257

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Transcript

257: So Your Client Wants to Pause… Here’s What to Do

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Brandi: [00:00:00] Let's be honest, nothing sends a wave of panic through a freelancer faster than a client. Say, we need to pause for a bit, whether it's budget, concern, slow season, or the vibes are just off. The question is how do you respond? Do you spiral? Do you freeze? Say, okay, and silently freak out. Today I am walking you through exactly what to do when not if a client asked to pause, including scripts, mindset shifts and business strategies that you can implement today to turn these moments from, oh crap, to, I've got this.

So let's jump on in.

Welcome back to another episode of the Serve Scale SOAR podcast. My name is Brandi Mowles, and I am your host and I'm so glad you're here. Whether you're brand spanking new, when this is your first episode, hello, or you're returning listener that's [00:01:00] been listening for the last five years, no matter where you are.

I'm so glad you're back, and just as always, I love to give you actionable, practical tips that you can implement into your business today. No fluff, just real talk. So let's jump into this episode 'cause I am gonna give you some tactical tips that you can put into your business right now. No matter if you're an ad manager, a launch manager, whatever freelance service you are offering, this episode is for you.

So let's be honest, nothing makes our stomach drop faster than when a client says we need to pause. Your brain goes into overdrive. Is it me? Is it work? What did I do wrong? And worse? How am I gonna pay next month? Where am I gonna find my next client? But here's the truth. Pauses happen. Pauses happen every day.

Pauses happen when you're brand new. Pauses happen with my clients who are charging $5,000 per month. Pauses are part of business, and when you're prepared, they [00:02:00] don't have to be a problem. Wow, that was a lot of pees y'all. Today I am walking you through exactly what to do when a client wants to pause, how to protect your energy and your income, and how to handle it like a confident business owner that you are.

So let's jump on in. With number one. The first thing is you can't panic. Don't panic. Get curious. Always remember that, and that's something I love is with any situation, don't panic. Get curious. Start by staying calm and getting more information. So many times we wanna jump to the worst case scenario, when really we just gotta get curious, ask better questions.

The quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions you ask. So get better at asking quality questions. Ask questions before jumping to conclusions, here's the exact question that I would use with a client. I totally understand. Can you share a bit more about what's going on so I can see how best to support you through this? Because then we get to [00:03:00] find out is it financial?

Is it timing? Is it launch delays? Is it personal bandwidth? Is it misalignment? Don't assume, ask. So once we get curious and we start asking questions and we know what they're thinking, then number two is we go to the contract. What does it say? This is one of the first things I always tell clients when they're dealing with client situations.

I ask them, what does your contract say? And they're like, I don't know. I didn't look. Always go to the contract. This is where you stop relying on emotions and start leaning into agreements. This is why we have a contract. Chances are you're never gonna get sued. Your contract is really there to help you protect your boundaries.

Ask yourself, does your contract have a pause clause? If yes, follow it. Exactly. Easy peasy. You're ahead of the game. You can actually tune out of this podcast episode right now. Don't do that, but technically you could. If no. It's time to add one. Your contract should spell out whether a client can pause for how long, what happens to [00:04:00] payments, and what happens to your availability.

Even if you're in panic mode, the contract isn't. So we're gonna ask questions. Then we're gonna go to the contract. Three. If you don't have a clause, it's time to create one for moving forward. If your contract doesn't say anything about pausing, don't beat yourself up. Just fix it Going forward, add a pause clause that one caps pause time. This is the biggest suggestion I've had. Strategist society members come and tell me that they pause someone and then they picked up eight months later and I'm like, no, we have to cap this. We have to cap it. 'cause your business changes your what if you're not even offering that service anymore.

Or what if your prices are now quadruple what they were? We have to have timeframes. I recommend no more than three month pause. State that the payments continue even if the service is paused. This protects your cash flow. Clarify what happens when the pause ends. This is not legal advice. This is just brainy style, real talk. Go to chat GPT if you want a real clause. [00:05:00] Clients may pause services for up to 90 days during this time. Payment obligations continue per this agreement. After 90 days, the contract may be reassessed for scope rate and availability.

Failure to return back within 90 days means loss of payment and services. So what that means in my contract is that they can pause, they have to return within 90 days. They still have to make their payments during those 90 days, and failure to return after the nine within the 90 days means loss of payment.

I don't give refunds and they'll be subject to a new contract. This protects me and creates a clear container. So we wanna have clauses, pause clauses in our contract, and like I said, don't use this one. This is not legal advice.

Go to chat GPT. Say you need a pause clause, put in that you need one that caps the pause times states payments continue, even if services are paused and clarifies what happens when pauses ends [00:06:00] and put in what you want to happen and it will spit something out for you. And so that's what I would suggest doing when it comes to clauses and your contract.

Okay, so now we've created our contract pause clause. Then once we're working with that client, we offer the pause, keep the relationship, and still get paid. You're not being rigid, you're being strategic, and we give them flexibility within boundaries. This is so important. We do this with our kids, but for some reason we don't do it with clients.

We give them flexibility, but with boundaries, boundaries are so important. So what I would say to a client. Happy to pause your services through whatever the 90 day mark is, and payments will continue as outlined in the contract. When you're ready to resume, we'll pick up right where we left off. This works because client feels supported.

You keep the revenue predictable and you're not scrambling to refill the spot. I would find a client to refill during that time period, but you don't have to. But [00:07:00] know that when they come back, you're not gonna be paid. You're getting paid ahead of time. So that is something keep in mind. Then we set a time limit.

Protect your energy. Pauses. Don't drag on forever, not in your business, because we've already talked about why that can be so damaging. My suggestion is max 90 days after that, it's a wrap or a new contract. Remind them that rates are subject to change after the pause. You're not holding spots indefinitely and you're running a business, not a casual club.

You don't have to tell them that, but that's something for you to keep in mind. And then I always like to confirm this, just to confirm. Your pause will run through X date if you'd like to restart. After that, we'll revisit availability and rates at that time. Also, if you don't restart within the 90 days, you will lose the payments.

There are no refunds. So what this does is you're just reading what's in your contract boundaries equal professionalism. You'll have people walk all over you without [00:08:00] boundaries, and so that's why we have a contract to protect you. You are a business owner.

Step into that role now. We have to reframe the pause for them. 'cause not all clients are gonna be happy about this. And not all clients read their contract or not all clients thought that they were gonna pause when they did read their contract. So for them, we need them to know you're still here, you're still ready, you're still available.

Use language like I totally understand. Just know I'm still in your corner. And here whenever you're ready to jump into full speed again. And then for you, this isn't a loss. It's space. It's time to pitch new clients, refine your offers, work on some systems, breathe. A pause isn't a punishment. Sometimes it's a gift if you treat it that way.

We have to reframe what these pauses mean. Do not take it personal. They happen to everyone. They happen to the best ad managers. They happen to the best service providers. They also happen to crappy service providers. Pauses are just part of [00:09:00] business, but you can do a pause in a strategic way that doesn't hurt your business or your livelihood.

So the next time a client says they need to pause, don't spiral. Don't scramble. Just follow the protocol. Get curious. Go to the contract, clarify the terms, keep the relationship with and the payment. Protect your boundaries and reframe it as your own paws to reflect, reset and rise. You've got this my friend.

This is you stepping into your business owner hat and big girl undies and doing the dang thing. So if you want help with contracts and invoicing and client situations like this, and you are just sick of doing this alone, head to Brandy and company.com/a hundred K and watch my free training on the three systems you need in place.

This goes under the scalable systems is having. Things like this in place, so you're never like blindsided by these situations. And I'll tell you about how to join us in [00:10:00] conversions for clients, where you get the content and the community in coaching. So until next time, my friends go out, serve your clients, scale your business, and soar into the success you deserve.