Fire Your Bad Clients
Last month I fired a client.
When all the signs are there that you have a “bad client”, you simply have to cut them loose.
What is a bad client? You probably know what I’m going to say, and if you make your living as a freelancer, you have likely been through it.
The thing is, the people were very nice at this company. I liked them. But don’t let that cloud your judgement. “Nice” is not why you sign a contract with a client. It’s not why you choose them and forego the opportunity cost of working with a GREAT client.
What makes it more surprising still is that this company had won a string of startup awards and is tipped for great things. I’m sure glad I won’t be part of it.
Here’s the four hallmarks of a bad client:
- Systemic disorganisation
Sending reminder emails the odd time is fine. It’s normal. We all forget to reply sometimes, right? But when it’s nearly every email, when it becomes the rule rather than the exception, it becomes disrespectful and just plain out of line.
“Sorry, it’s just been manic here. We have a deadline to hit next…” and so on and so forth. It was like Groundhog Day receiving this type of reply.
- Tardy with payment
You wait on payment for your work. No sign of it. You ask about it and get the “So sorry, I’ll chase it up now” reply. Another week goes by, two weeks. You can see where I’m going here. Again, this happened with my recent bad client. If waiting on payment is the exception to the rule that is fine. It’s normal. But otherwise, it’s a sign to move on.
- Broken promises
The original agreement we had in place just didn’t materialise very soon. It makes you wonder why a company goes to the effort of searching for you in the first place. Hiring people is an expensive, time-consuming process. And these promises were broken because of their appalling organisation.
- Being cheap
Every freelancer has the misfortune of working with a penny-pinching client from time to time. This is the client who doesn’t truly value what you bring. Rather, they want you to squeeze as much as they can for as little as they can. Of course, a business has to keep an eye on their cash flow but the cheap client is on a whole other level. Nobody likes a cheapskate.
It’s not uncommon for a single client to possess more than one or all of these traits. This is what happened to me after a great first meeting (that’s what tricked me!). I have had bad clients before so once these signs showed up and they didn’t disappear I had no hesitation in cutting ties. This came after another department of the company asked me to work with them too.
Many of us stay with a bad client for any of a number of reasons. Usually it’s because we are fearful of being out of work. It took me a week to refill the space in my schedule for a client that I am very happy with. I set about contacting companies, reaching out to my professional contacts and marketing my services by other means to do so.
And you can do the same. I implore you to please do so if you have a bad client instead of staying for the convenience. Fortunately there are many wonderful companies who know that it is people who form the cornerstone of their success and I have had wonderful clients who fit this description.
So what do you think? Maybe it’s time to sack off that bad client and go work for truly professional people who do value what you bring. Or stay and put up with the crap. Your call.
Ps. firing that terrible client felt great ;)