Should Freelance Writers Fire Problem Clients?

Companies don't hesitate to fire freelances who fail to live up to their obligations. We should hold our clients to the same standard. Sound crazy? Perhaps not, and here's why. Problem clients contribute to our income, but they also contribute to our angst. And if we can't have fun doing what we love, and love the clients we do it with, what's the point?

Anytime is a great time to review your client list and evaluate whether any of your clients are holding you back from achieving greater success. So get out a piece of paper and a pen or pencil and start making a list. Which client is your slowest payer? Which one demands the most and expects to pay the least? Which client doesn't get the concept of project creep or why it should bother you? Which brings you the most boring or unprofitable assignments?

Now, look at your list and consider this: if you fired the client today whose name appears on your list most frequently, or whose name appears in the category you consider to be most important, and invested the time you would have devoted to that client's work this month on finding a new (and hopefully better) client, how much better would the rest of your year be? Probably a lot better!

Instead of constantly wrestling with problem clients, fire them and get better ones. This puts you in a position of strength. It gives you control, improves your work environment, maximizes the daily fun factor, and increases your bottom line.

Making the decision to fire a client is exhilarating. But actually firing them? Well, that can be, too. Although not always practical, it can be beneficial to tell the client you're firing why you're firing them. This way they can learn from their mistakes. However, they rarely do because problem clients usually have problems throughout their organization.

The more common way to fire a client is to do it subtly. This can be done most easily by being "over-booked" when they call with a new assignment. The advantage to this approach of firing a client is that, by not offending them, you can keep them in the wings in case you get slow or have a change of heart. A third approach is to increase your pricing to the problem client. If they balk, you've achieved your goal. If they choose to pay the higher prices, it's amazing how much more tolerable a problem client can become.

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