http://www.christopherhawkins.com/06-13-2005.htm#78

11 Clients You Need To Fire Right Now

In that situation, I finished the project as agreed, making sure that all was in writing and that I was paid in full upon delivery. They even requested some additional functionality for which I quoted them using my “AH rate” (AH is an abbreviation, of course), which is $50 per hour higher. It was too bad as they really needed the support, and I had lunch about a year later with the colleague whom they called. It was a much better fit.

Great article.

I wrote a fairly series on firing customers in general (as well as a sample letter/email) on my customer service blog a few months ago. It’s interesting to see your take on the issue for the freelancer crowd.

Here’s the series: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

You may find it interesting. If you have any feedback, please feel free to send me a note. :)

I’ve only once told a client that I would no longer take their business, but I have on several occasions simply stopped accepting contracts from others on one pretext or another–usually for the more-or-less truthful reason that I’m just too busy to take on any more work right now. After a few refusals, they usually go elsewhere.

And the only reason so far that I have “fired” a client is for late payment of invoices. In ten years, I have never NOT been paid, but waiting three months for an invoice worth several thousand dollars is extremely irritating, especially if it’s a habitual occurrence.

Good article, BTW. It’s important to remember that just because you’re a freelancer, doesn’t mean you have to put up with BS. After all, fleeing the BS is one of the reasons we’re freelancers, right?

Its also important to point out that as a service provider you yourself will have a hard time producing quality work for a bad client (the same is true in the employee/ employer relationship). No one does their best when they’re unhappy. I feel that you get better quality work done when your excited about that work and who you’re doing it for.

The client was a small, private preschool that wanted to micromanage every little detail about a web site for them.

A lot of the things they wanted didn’t adhere to my policies regarding web standards, and it worked out fine. We just agreed that I wasn’t what they were looking for and went our separate ways.

Months later, I noticed they were still looking for a web designer.

You have to segment out your customers by the value they bring you… Invariably you’ll find that 10% of them bring in 90% of your revenue. On the other end of the spectrum, you have the 10% of them that demand a disproportionate amount of your time. Consultants need to realize that the clients who are taking up most of their time are harming their ability to serve their high-value clients, and further harming their ability to acquire new high-value clients.

It’s REALLY easy for a freelancer to spend their time servicing low-profit clients– after all, that’s what you’re good at. You need the money, right? But the best thing you could do is gently clear them off of your plate and make room for time to invest in selling/marketing to new customers.

If you have the time, give a listen to this panel from SXSW about the concept of getting to a 4-day work week. A lot of what he talked about really speaks to this issue.

How does one “fire” a customer that no longer owes you money, particularly when one also values this customer’s right to vent? Or conversely, how the hell do I win her over? She’s otherwise a great asset to the community. Nothing I have tried thus far has succeeded, and she isn’t going away any time soon, if ever.