Is Every Client Worth Your Time? Saying No To Save Your Business
During my 5 years of freelancing, I’ve come across some insane client requests. From having to jump through hoops in paperwork, to competing against 300 other freelancers, to spending 10 hours through email just to be passed over – this is why I normally stick to freelancing for agencies only. It just doesn’t seem worth the work to me. Sometimes, I’ll take a regular client if they seem sane. (You’d be surprised…) So how do you know from that first emails whether they’re worth taking on or passing over? Here are some scenarios of when to pass over a client.
Their First Email is an Angry Email
You’ve never met or talked to this person ever. However, their first email is full of hate and anger. Why? It could be their previous designer or developer screwed up or it could be that they were just having a bad day. I once had a potential client send me an angry email complaining about his previous developer (like I knew/could control that guy). After 4 back and forth emails, I still couldn’t figure out what this guy wanted from me and why he was emailing me all his drama. I finally figured out he wanted me to fix the previous developer’s mistakes and since he already paid the previous developer, I wouldn’t get paid, or would get paid very little to fix it. What? I think not. It turns out this guy worked with another freelancer I knew and from his side, was nothing but crazy drama. Now that client is suing his freelancer – and I’m happy I passed.
They Tell You They’re Getting “Multiple Quotes” but Proceed To Ask A Million Questions
I fall into this trap time after time. You get an email and the first line is “I’m looking for such and such, but I’m also getting multiple offers.” These people are NOT serious about hiring your services. All they want is to start the bidding war, and they’re 99% likely to go with the cheapest guy, whether his work is better or not. What’s worse, they normally know very little about the web and tend to ask question after question about every little web thing. While this normally does not bother me, as I consider it part of my job to educate my clients, it’s terrible when you spend hours “educating” them so they can go somewhere else. I’ve seriously never landed a project with this type of client.
They’re Not Going To Talk To You At All Unless You Sign a Non-Disclosure
Every client thinks they have the perfect idea to make a million bucks. Rarely, any of them do. While I don’t mind signing a non-disclosure before I start the project, some potential clients have asked me to sign a non-disclosure before they even tell me the details of the project! It’s ridiculous, why would their HTML be any different from anyone else’s HTML? I’m coding sites here, not nuclear physics. If a client can’t at least give me some details about what they’re needing, I’ll walk.
They Laugh At Your “Business”
If a client doesn’t take your business seriously, then they aren’t going to respect or pay you. I once had a guy laugh at my billing terms, laugh that I wanted to send him an official quote and contract and laugh that I used “official” invoices. He tried to be buddy-buddy with me and promised lots of work. The guy never paid my last invoice. Go figure.
They Can Do This Themselves, They’re Just Busy
These clients believe they can do the coding themselves, have their niece do the design or whatever, they’re just too busy to take care of it. Only problem with these guys is that they never let YOU do it. They micro-manage everything and are never satisfied.
Just Because You’re The Professional, Doesn’t Mean I’ll Listen
These clients fight with you every step of the way. It’s some sort of dominance issue I think. They think they know the answers, and even though they paid you because you know the answers, doesn’t mean they listen to you. I don’t mind when clients have suggestions and/or questions about the methods I use, but I DO mind when they stop me from doing my job.
Don’t Be a PrimaDonna but…
Some of these descriptions may sound a little stuck up, and in no way should they. Just because you have client standards doesn’t make you that stereotypical “high than thou” designers and developers seem to have. These clients cause nothing but trouble, wasted time and may even jeopardize your business (see #1). You don’t have to take every client that comes through your door – and you shouldn’t. You have limited time and resources which should be spent on paying projects.
Have you noticed anything in potential clients’ emails that alert you?
Photo Courtesy of BGLewandowski
About the author
Amber Weinberg specializes in clean and semantic XHTML, CSS and WordPress development. She has over 10 years of coding experience and is pretty cool to work with. Amber is available for freelance work, so why not hire her for your next project?
I love the clients that seem to know how much time things take for you to do. Oh! And they expect you to meet with them for free. “I’m paying you for the website design aren’t I? That should include coming to at my every beckoning call!” Some customers forget that they pay the cable guy to come out and look the cable inside of their house.
It seems that these days are filled with people who “know website design” because they purchased Dreamweaver or took a class at a library on the topic. I guess the same can be said of everyone being a Mechanic too. I can do basic car maintenance, but that’s what I pay my mechanic for. I wish some clients would understand that about our craft.
Great article!
Nice article!
I know when I’m in trouble when questions for the client come up and instead of just emailing back an answer I get “Let’s meet and discuss that” or I send over a client questionnaire and get it back blank except for the company name and contact information. Every new job and client is a learning experience and my contracts are living documents that change by the client.
Thanks for sharing your experiences!
I love when a client needs a ‘quick’ thing fixed, and they can’t do the coding themselves, yet they know that it should only take two minutes.
Thanks guys! That’s the great thing about being a freelancer, you aren’t forced to work with these clients, you can easily tell them “No” and send them on their way.