In business, the most valuable lessons often come from experience. The way we navigate challenges and adapt to change shape how we approach our work and make decisions. With over a decade of experience at CLIQ, Annabel Vloeimans, our Head of Legal Affairs, is an example of this growth.

From her journey, she has earned insights that have not only shaped her career but also contributed significantly to our company’s success. In this article, Annabel shares three key lessons she’s learned throughout her time at CLIQ.

#1 Know your negotiation limits

In all my years at CLIQ, I have been involved in negotiating and closing many business deals and partnerships, which are always exciting projects. Some were smaller and some were bigger. What I’ve learnt is that it’s often better to not keep on negotiating until you get the utter most out of a deal, but to stop when the other side also still feels they have a good and reasonable deal. Of course, you can always do a bit better or get a bit more out of a deal, but any dissatisfaction of the other party can sooner or later always come to the surface. Once that happens, it’s hard to re-establish the trust that is needed between partners. For a successful and long-lasting partnership, it is important that, at the end of the day, each side is confident that they have closed a good deal.

#2 Challenges create opportunities

At CLIQ, we’ve had very successful periods, but of course also challenging periods. When mobile was our core business and kept on declining, it forced us to be creative and to come up with other payment methods and marketing channels. This led to the current business model and the most successful period ever in CLIQ’s history.

I believe that this is what we’re good at. We see challenges, tackle them and become more efficient and creative along the way. I am fully confident that in the long term, every kind of period we face will lead to a more future-proof and improved business model and organisation!

#3 Think of options and solutions and be flexible

At CLIQ, there are constantly new exciting plans and that requires an open and flexible mindset. I remind myself and my team often that if it is not possible to do something one way, we need to try to come up with other options and think of solutions for how we can also do something differently. Over the years, I’ve learnt that for every challenge there is almost always a solution, even when you don’t think so.