I was sitting at my local nail salon on the weekend, happily within my self-declared “self-care” one-hour window.
Here’s what you need to know about this place. They really only do walk-ins. You turn up, join the line, and wait. I learnt that the hard way. After a few very long visits, I decided to change my approach.
Now I walk in, hold my hand up to get the manager’s attention and ask one simple question: can you do it in under an hour?
If she says yes, I sit down. If she gives me that look that says absolutely not, I leave. No drama, and no two-hour surprise.
On the weekend, the woman next to me was visibly agitated. She’d already been there for two hours. The technician was slow and methodical. Halfway through (after he’d already removed her polish) she said, “That’s enough. I need to go.”
He argued. But what struck me wasn’t the tension.
It was that she’d waited two hours to say what she needed.
How often do we do this in business?
How often do women sit in situations that aren’t working for them, quietly grumbling, hoping someone else will read the room?
We don’t say:
- I need this done by Friday.
- I need a clear scope.
- I need to be paid upfront.
- I need this call to finish on time.
- I need this partnership to feel reciprocal.
We worry about being judged. About being seen as difficult. About rejection.
But clarity is kind. We know this.
When I say I have an hour, the responsibility shifts. They either agree or they don’t. There’s no resentment building on either side. There’s no two-hour simmer where I’m getting more and more frustrated while smiling politely.
The same applies in business
- If you want efficient service, state your timeframe.
- If you want premium pricing, state your boundaries.
- If you want aligned clients, state your expectations.
Most inefficiency isn’t about capability. It’s about unspoken standards. It’s about the things we think but don’t say, the boundaries we have but don’t communicate, and the expectations we hold but never make clear.
I see this with women in business all the time. They’ll tell me a client is driving them mad, or a project has blown out, or a partnership feels one-sided. And when I ask, “Have you told them that?” the answer is almost always no.
We assume people should just know. They don’t.
Your clients aren’t mind readers. Your collaborators aren’t mind readers. The nail technician taking his sweet time is not a mind reader.
One sentence can change everything
You don’t need a ten-point boundary-setting framework. You don’t need to rehearse a script. You just need one clear sentence.
“My rate for this project is X.”
“I need the brief by Wednesday or the timeline shifts.”
“That doesn’t work for me. Here’s what does.”
Yes, it feels awkward. Say it anyway.
The woman next to me at the salon? She eventually said what she needed. But she lost two hours getting there. Two hours of sitting in frustration when one sentence at the start would have changed the whole experience.
What are you currently sitting through that you could solve with one clear sentence?