?? Firing a client!
Tom Kozacinski
Product Design Kahuna @ StuRents ? ??♂? Mentor to Freelancers | TEDx & Keynote speaker, Stand Up Comedian, Pizza Lover, AI Aficionado, and some other buzzwords too!
First ?? Newsletter - let talk about firing a client - that's always fun! ?? I'm sure you had a ?? experience, feel free to share it with me. I love reading Clients from hell stories.
You're totally allowed to fire a bad client
I like to think that I'm a nice guy, but I must admit, I started my career as a pushover when it comes to clients. I ate it all up until I was finally done and I snapped.
I've experienced all the classic signs of bad clients, from not paying in time (duh!), making the logo bigger, ghosting, scope creeping, calling me late and on weekends... All the jazz.
I even once had a phone conversation with a client while his spouse was shouting from another room "tell him to make the website more bluer". True story.
But I was finally fed up when a client with whom I was working with on and off for over a year, and did (according to him) a terrific job every time, after last-minute changes, long weekends, jUsT oNe mOrE tHiNg bEfOrE wE aRe dOnE, etc... When we were doing a fairly big project, and I've agreed to a tight deadline (dumbass) to help him launch this thing, I was working the weekend when he sent me an email on a beautiful Saturday afternoon:
领英推荐
"...I am looking forward to your final designs, please book at least 3 hours on Monday so we can go over every mistake you are going to make, and I'll guide you point by point how to fix them..."
At that moment I just lost it and unloaded all the frustration I've been gathering over a few years in one very angry email, maybe even more than he deserved. I fired his ass, telling him I'm done with him, and he can find someone else to yank on a Saturday with his bullshit.
It felt like a breakup, but it helped me realise that I shouldn't be miserable because of what I claim to love doing.
Since then, I set clear boundaries and expectations with every client, based on how I want to work, communicate, deliver and hand over every piece of work. And you know what? Everyone is happy. As long as we are all on the same page.
You are in charge of your well-being. Make it a priority.
Cheers.
3D Visualization Artist, Owner at Solo Studio
3 年Great article, Tom. We've all been there at some point I guess. In my opinion the best way to avoid these kinds of clients or at least work with one is to work on your own terms. Make a bulletproof contract with details on when and what will be delivered to them so they know what to expect. Also, it's a good thing to demand payment up front, it eliminates the ones who didn't have the intention to pay you at all. We all learn through life but the best lessons are the ones we got to taste on our own skin. Nevertheless we can always try to learn from other people's experiences and mistakes.
Copywriter with an on-page SEO vein | Get more website clicks | Linkedin content creator | 4 Languages -The way you write tells me a lot about you | Polyglot and Polymath asking WHY
3 年these clients never seem to get off your back
Founder & CEO sclr labs | sclr studio - new Innovation Hub in London | Transforming Innovators into market leaders | Market Expansion | NED | Board Advisor | Serial Entrepreneur
3 年Totally support it! We had such clients, too. Extending the project timeframes in order to get one more thing done, one more phone call... before the next milestone is achieved and the next phase is started, which usually means another invoice. The good news is that you can smell them from a mile away early on!