Good!
this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
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I have nothing against firing the customer here or there, that's not the whole story for too many. For one thing, people tend to broadcast their bottom-feeding ways and attract more than their share of chiseling, bitchy clients.
Nobody knows what is going on in this instance. The type of discussion suffers from a one-dimensional perspective which is no different than an employee's us-versus-them mentality. The poverty of imagination is showing.
Awesome that you put your boundaries out there and kept people from stepping over them! Imagine how much time you will save to do something valuable if you can spot such a client earlier in the process next time.
Generally in my experience the ones that try to fuck you on the contract will try to fuck you the whole contract long.
They are absolutely not worth working with.
I agree! Also people that try to lower the price or are in desperate financially situation are the worse clients.
Linkedin has done immeasurable damage to story structure
You can't have all clients.
Best of luck🙂
Good! Had a similar situation with a customer recently that was just berating me over customer support chat for an issue that was completely out of my control. Tried my best to help him, but in the end I had to fire that customer.
This reminds me of how Simon Sinek teaches that even when we choose our 6 clients we should choose them with our "why?" In mind.
We should only choose to work with people who resonate with the purpose of our business. It should not just be about the money because we will end up compromizing our own vision.
Good on you!
Well done, lots of respect
Firing clients is one of the most effective business lessons I've learned. Bad clients end up increasing your cost of doing business, which effectively cuts into your margins. Revenue tends to go up a few months after you get rid of a bad client, in my experience.
I will never forget the first client I should have fired.
Never again will I deal with that. I will eat a loss to avoid that nightmare.
A few months after that incident, I refused to do work for someone. They ended up going to my friend. My friend called me up and asked why I didn't refer the client to him. I told him I didn't get a good vibe from the client. My friend got better vibes. Started work. Ended up having a ton of change orders that the client signed off on. Then, he refused to pay because it wasn't in the original contract. Turned out to be a huge ordeal. My friend wound up losing a ton of money on that job to "do right by the customer" I felt so bad for my friend. We agreed to head eachothers warnings after that.
Yea you probably dodged a lot of stress with this one. It’s tough to make that decision, but your mental wellbeing is priceless.
if it's not a hell, yes, dont do it.
Well said.
Also, trust your gut. Sadly, when you need money these kinds of people can sense it.
I turned down a 20k project recently because of a very similar circumstance. The lead wanted a full refund clause among other things and I denied. After back and forth, they weren’t willing to meet in the middle and I rejected the project. Good on you!
As others have said, sounds like you made the right call here.
understood
Hear hear. I also had a nightmare client who had nitpicking issues years ago, and I think it scared me straight. Generally I have done ok since then! Partners are another topic… tried that a few times and it didn’t work out haha.
In construction, the ones that nitpick in quoting and are riding you hard about the price will document/fabricate everything they can to pinhole you into giving them money back, and it's usually right where they wanted to pay anyway.
I learned to just let them go and refer them to a competitor.
Well done! I’ve learnt to trust my gut. If I get bad vibes from the first few meetings or if they ask about doing it cheaper from the start, I’ll just walk away. Got no time for folks who don’t value my time.
Absolutely the right call. Hard to do sometimes but needs to be done more often.
What industry?
Gotta go with your gut!!! Great job!!!
That's stress dodged as well.
Hope your next client is easier.