When you are starting out getting a client to say “yes” is
hard. You take any and every client and you learn from these experiences. As you
and your company grow, there are going to be times when you need to fire a
client. No one wants to turn away from
someone who initially entrusted them with a “yes”, but sometimes it is either
too expensive to keep the client on or the client isn’t worth the work.
If you have a client you need to fire, for whatever reason,
here are some tips on how and why to handle the situation.
If the client is a problem child or needs constant
hand-holding, fire them. You can obtain
another contract that will not take up most of you time for the same amount of
money. I had a client who sent me 10
emails a day about everything. I spent so much time explaining things to her
and then answering to her that I never got what I needed to handle done.
Additionally, her emails were rude and she demanded everything “like now”.
She knew the amount of clients I handled
coming on. It wasn’t even reasonable for her to think my world stopped, and my
other clients were put on hold, because she came on board. I fired this client.
You can’t simply fire a client once you decided to make this
decision. You can either let their contract run its course or you can fire them
based on a violation of a Terms of Service agreement. If you don’t have one of
these, you need to step up your game in business. You attorney can help draft this to accompany
your contracts. Basically, this document tells the client what is expected of
him or her and how you can sue him or her if it is violated. It sets the
expectations up for you to be in control, legally, should the client becomes a
problem child or hand-holder at any point in the contract.
It never makes business sense to dedicate so much time to
clients who aren’t allowing you to do your job or put you and/or your company
in a bad light.
Remember, it isn’t personal. It IS business. Fire those
naughty or needy clients today!
Coco the CEO
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