Hi friend,

Within the precariously piled stack of snail mail I have to ~deal with~ are many things: A sweet New Year's card from a friend, an advertisement for septic tank pumping, a scam that claims to be something related to my mortgage.

Among the fray of envelopes is an invoice that, when opened, made me audibly scoff and roll my eyes. I ranted to my husband about this invoice and I told the story to my friends over cocktails last week (who also audibly scoffed, rolled their eyes, and said "send it to collections!" btw).

It started when my father in law bought me a pair of L.L. Bean boots for Christmas. My husband, knowing this gift would delight my inner 14 year old (who coveted cool-girl-boots but never had any) had sent him this idea, along with my size.

When my dear father in law ordered the boots, he followed the instructions on the L.L. Bean website to size down a full size. And come Christmas morning, I excitedly opened said boots, exclaimed about the quality and color, went to try them on and ... they [predictably?] did not fit.

So, FIL initiated an exchange for my normal size and had the new boots shipped straight to my house. They arrived a week later; they fit; my inner child was delighted.

THEN another week later, I got a piece of snail mail from L.L. Bean. It was, dear reader, an invoice for the shipping of the replacement boots. An invoice for $6.95. Payable only by snail mail.

Listen, I understand them charging for shipping. I don't begrudge a snail mail invoice, or even an old-school system (like not charging for the shipping when the exchange was processed??).

My problem is how hard they have made it to pay them.

Now, I have to dig up an envelope and a stamp and my stash of personal checks (all of which I'm sure I have, but I don't know exactly where)(which I am blaming on having recently moved, but in truth I do acknowledge this is a long-standing organizational rub for me). And it likely won't take me LONG to mail them a check. But they would have been paid already if they had included a website or even a phone number on the invoice as options. And I also wouldn't have a silly little invoice hanging over my head for longer than I'm comfortable admitting (I am, when you boil it down, just a millennial girl).

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This snail-mail-only invoice is currently an open energetic loop for me, and the longer it takes me the more ashamed I am, and I'm also bad-mouthing the company to my friends even though I do love their boots.

The key point here is not my projected moral failing onto a piece of paper it's that I'm frustrated because they put too much friction into the process. And it's not even intentional, because this is the way things were done for hundreds of years before the advent of websites and credit cards. But, they clearly haven't updated their system to reflect their customers' current behaviors.

In the year 2026, we have to intentionally make it easy for people to pay us.

How does this relate to you, dear reader who also asks people to pay them for goods or services? Because you don't want to be like L.L. Bean.

By which I mean, I would gently advise you to take a look at how you are asking folks to pay you. Is it so easy they can do it without getting up from their desk? Does it require one, two, or three additional steps? Back and forth emailing? Enough waiting time for them to start to regret their decision to purchase? Digging up personal checks?

Is there anything you can do today to make it easier for people to pay you?

Maybe you need to map your customer journey and move where payment happens in the onboarding process to make it more smooth. Maybe you need to consider a different tech stack that is more automated. Maybe your scheduling needs to be less manual so clients can schedule and pay for your services all in one step.

Or maybe you've already dialed in your sales process and this list of potential adjustments is making you go ✅ check, ✅ check, ✅ check.

To which I say, "great job!" and "congrats on doing better than L.L. Bean."

On the other hand, if you're overwhelmed with figuring out how to make it easier for people to pay you because you do something funky and cool and outside of the box in your business? I love streamlining a sales process--it's a big part of wrangling your work! Let's chat about it.

Warmly, Heather (Seaman) Bax Business Strategist & Head Wrangler ​Small Business Rodeo​

Tired of trying to make someone else's plan fit your unique small business? → Book a Strategic Planning Intensive.​

Think you might be ready to wrangle your work but not quite sure? → Let's chat.​

P.S. I leave in my em dashes because I refuse to change my writing style to prove I'm not a robot, but an LLM was nowhere near this email. Real thoughts from my real head, typos and all!