Today I fired a client... lessons learned

Yes, exactly. I remember the time I cut ties with a bad client. It was like quitting a job you hate. The whole point being self-employed is being happy with who I work.

What's best is to qualify for good prospects and get rid of the bad up front. You don't have to deal with bad clients.

No Up Front Contract (How many revisions did they get with your original order? How should they communicate with you? Who should be involved in the design, and who not? Do this and you're fired as a client.)

Looking back, were there any clues at the start that warned you this might not be the best client?

Unfortunately this kind of clients exist, and that`s because they have the idea they know better than the designer, and they have something specific on their minds about how it should look, but they can`t explane what they want and that vision of theirs changes with each revision, and new ideas come to their minds. This kind of clients will never be happy, and it`s best to let them go.

Hey, Plainwords:

First of all I really like your handle: "Plainwords". Simple, unassuming, easy to relate to and understand. Nice!

I super relate to having cut loose a customer who is draining your life's blood. It's great to accommodate your client's desires, but enough is enough. You have to be able to breathe!

You certainly did the right thing. And all the best of luck with your new and exciting client job.

I have only had to do this a couple of times and it did feel very liberating.
Ironically enough I had a recent experience and was about to fire a client but thought I would wait for a specific result and now it looks like the client has turned around and become a good one. I think there was a trust issue there but now he has seen my work, he was over the moon. That makes me feel good too... because I greatly exceeded his expectations both on quality and on achieving a promised deadline which was tight.

As Jason said this can also be a result of you not laying done the expectations of one another right from the start.

I see so many people who offer website design and say unlimited revisions. It's crazy. You will always get the odd person take advantage of you if you offer something like that. Unlimited revisions also reads to me (as a customer) that this person is not so sure they will be able to immediately come up with something I like and we will be going back and forth until I finally end up with the design I want. That sounds like a lot of work to me.

Why not instead say you will give them 2 separate options and then they can make 3 revisions to whichever option they choose. Any changes after that you will charge at $x per hour.

The reality is it sounds like the client doesn't have the spare money lying around to cough up the rest and finalize the payment. So the easiest way out for them is to prolong the process and so long as they appear not happy with the design, they don't have to pay you.

You did the right thing by getting rid of this customer but you also did the wrong thing by not having very clear and specific expectations upfront. You should never allow a customer to request unlimited revisions. It doesn't help you and it doesn't help them.

But as always, that's just my take on things and yours may be different.

Great post!

The best and hardest thing I ever did was to let a client go. Boy did I feel so much better!! As Jason and Will mentioned above, I found out the hard way, you need "Clear Expectations!!" I can't agree enough.

Last month I was had just purchased some cool furniture and as part of the conversation while paying, it had come up that the owner wanted to know how we found him. I said, "it wasn't easy your website is broken and your FB page is a bit of a mess." I told him I was a website designer and perhaps we could chat about fixing and updating his online marketing.

Earlier I had purchased a WSO that addressed qualifying a client. I went down my list and found that this would be a really problematic relationship and probably would cost me money just meeting with him again. (It was like 10 out of 10 in the not good column). I needed the money but in the long run I am so glad I followed that rule because about a week later I got two awesome clients that paid up front, no questions asked just "get-er-done, we trust you." They totally qualified.

I am very cautious with whom I work with these days and take my time to work with qualified clients. When I don't I always get burned.

Cheers! -RJ

The crazy thing is, if the client had accepted my original design (which was perfect for their needs IMHO) they would have the website online by now and bringing in new business for them. As it is, they will probably be going round in circles for several months until they find someone who can create the "work of art" that they want.

A lot of this can be avoided if the contract is written properly.

I too build Wordpress sites and I simply include language that states that 'two major design iterations and one minor iteration is included in the proposal. Further design services are available at a rate of $xx per hour.'

Basically, they can scrap the first design iteration completely and I will start fresh. If they decide to do that*, we sit and discuss what they liked, what they didn't, etc. From there I produce something much closer to their specs - and tweak it from there.

*This has only happened once in 4 years. If you pay attention, you can usually get it right the first time

It's an issue of ensuring conceptual agreement, planned iterations and defining scope creep have been reached at the time of contract signing.

When I consulted with a major manufacturer with product distribution in multiple countries, the web design firm of record charged them $181k for a website which included very specific terms and the hourly pricing for modification. Every change beyond the original agreement cost money and the agency ensured that the manufacturer had to use them every step of the way.

Many folks here bend over backwards for prices they woefully-undercharge.

The manufacturer I consulted for? Well funny enough, they could have spent $10k on a fully tweaked WordPress installation (or Joomla or Concrete5) and had the same capabilities as that $181 website but with full control.

I remember fireing my first client, this guy bought a mobile website from me and he kept coming back, this color wasn't looking good in that browser, if i could change the sequence of the pages (which i ended up doing 10 times) and i had to have approve every single page...

After two weeks i was sick and tired of it, took down the mobile site refunded his money and called him up to say that our business relationship was done

It was a great feeling to be done with this client, two days later his wife called me of i could put the mobile site up like it was and there would be no more nagging calls from her husband...

Sometimes you have to put your foot down and say, screw it i am done with you, because people will walk all over you, these people are still clients and i have done several promotion jobs for them and never had a issue since again

Moral of the story, stand up for yourself and your business, nobody else will...

This is a problem that will always be faced by businesses, no matter what industry it may be. As always, 'an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure', pops up in my mind.

You may not have to necessarily drop your client if, from the get go, you had explicitly stated the terms of your contract. Without it, you might end doing an infinity of extra work, not to mention the bad blood if you want to put things to an end.

"they said their only concern was that I might have under-quoted, and I was welcome to charge them more if necessary!"

Everyone needs clients like these