Do you need to sack a client?

What freelancer doesn’t work hard to please and retain their clients?

Especially when we constantly hear that it’s much easier and more profitable to keep the ones we have than go out and find new ones.

We dread losing a client, not just for the lost income, but for fear of what they might tell other people about our personality and skills. Will it be the thin end of the wedge?

But occasionally we have to go beyond even that scenario and contemplate whether the decision to sack a client is actually the only or best course to take.

Situations when you might need to sack a client

1. Taking too much time.
Susan is a web designer and took on a project that was supposed to last a month, to set up a site at a price reflecting that time period. ‘But they kept changing their minds and putting the date back,’ she says. ‘They were micro-managing me and constantly sending emails. I was trying to work on the site at the same time as managing their questions and finally it was too much.’

After three months she decided to cut her losses and take a reduction in her fee, handing over the site not quite completed in a state that another designer could finish.

‘Yes, I lost out financially, but it was making me ill and it was worth it to get back my peace of mind,’ she recalls.

‘I was afraid of being badmouthed in the local business community, and I kept asking myself if I was to blame. It knocked my confidence, but fortunately I managed to end it amicably and there is no embarrassment now when we meet.’

2. Not taking your advice.
PR consultant Ruth Badley had a client who was paying for her advice but not listening to it. That may not appear to be a problem, but the situation began to threaten Ruth’s reputation.

‘He thought everyone should work to his deadlines not their own,’ she says. ‘I got him an interview with a publication but it became clear he wasn’t going to deliver, and he didn’t authorise his senior colleagues to do it instead.

‘I was afraid it would ruin the contacts I had, so I wrote him a long email listing every attempt I’d made, what had gone wrong, and what I’d need in order to continue working with him. I never received an acknowledgement.’

3. Working for less than you’re worth.
Ruth also recalls her very first client, whom she met at a networking group, and to whom she offered a special rate. ‘That should have been for a specified time and then reviewed,’ she reflects, ‘but I was lacking in confidence and didn’t want to lose the work.’

She was thrilled with the results she got for the client. National print and broadcast journalists featured the story, and Ruth says now that ‘I got carried away by my success and by supporting her. I began to feel resentful that she was paying much less than the going rate, and then she also began to ‘forget’ to pay me.’

Ruth was now getting other clients who were paying the full rate so she decided that once she’d been paid up to date she would stop working for that client.

Have you been in other difficult situations where you felt you had no choice but to sack a client?

In a future post we’ll look at how to sack a client in order to have the best chance of a positive outcome for both parties.