Latest / The Life-First Solopreneur / The Solopreneur's Guide to Breaking Up With a Bad Client

Transcript

The Solopreneur's Guide to Breaking Up With a Bad Client · The Life-First Solopreneur

• 0:00
  Carly Ries: What do you do when your best paying client is also the one slowly draining the life out of you? The one who calls at midnight, ignores every boundary, and somehow still signs the biggest check. Well, in today's episode, we get into the messy art of firing a client without torching your business. We talk about doing the math on what the client is really costing you, why the nice client can be just as much of a problem as the mean one, how to take the high road even when you are completely fed up, and what to actually do with your time once they're gone. So stick around because your soul and your bank account do not have to be enemies.
• 0:35
  You're listening to the Life-First Solopreneur, the podcast for those in pursuit of a life first business. I'm Carly Ries and my cohost Joe Rando and I spend every episode with solopreneurs who are proving there's a better way to run a one person business and experts who are helping make it happen. We like to say life first, then business. So let's get right to it. Oh, Joe.
• 1:00
  There is this constant struggle, I feel like, when we talk to life first solopreneurs because these are people that don't necessarily want to work sixty hours a week and give their life to their entire business. But they do need to make a paycheck. And sometimes they have that client that pays well but crushes their soul. The client that doesn't respect boundaries, that calls at odd hours of the night, that is rude, that doesn't pay on time. Maybe this isn't all the same client, but these are all just examples of a really frustrating client, but people feel like they need to hang on to them because they pay.
• 1:42
  But again, like I said, if it's at the risk of working sixty hours a week and not respecting boundaries, is that a life first business? I wanna know your thoughts. How do you get rid of a client who's horrible, the worst, but pays your bills?
• 1:56
  Joe Rando: Well, can I just add a clarification before I take that on? That is, sometimes they're not horrible. They're just wrong, and that can be just as bad. I have a saying, you know, a special client can quickly turn into a problem client. And what I mean by that is if you have a business doing x and either someone comes along or someone came along early in the business and has you doing y.
• 2:27
  That can be a real problem. maybe that person's perfectly reasonable and nice, pays their bills on time, does everything great, but you're doing something that's not your core business, and it's completely eating your time because you've gotta do something different for this one client out of 10 or whatever it is. So that is also a problem client and probably a more difficult one because they're not even nasty.
• 2:50
  Carly Ries: Yeah. That's true.
• 2:51
  Joe Rando: I just want to put that on the table. but the issue comes down to the fact that, regardless of the fact that they're paying, and maybe they're paying well. I've talked to solopreneurs where the the problem client was a jerk and was paying, like, over half of their revenues. And you're in a tough situation there because you now have built yourself a business that is eating your life instead of, helping it. So I think that the issue is that when you're sitting there dealing with any kind of problem client, whether they're nice or not, you gotta sit down and do the math.
• 3:32
  Right? What are you really spending on this client, per hour? Because that can sometimes help to tell a story. If they're paying a lot of money, but then you look and you say, oh my goodness.
• 3:44
  I knew somebody that had a job that was paying $30 an hour, but only paying $30 an hour when they were with a client. And when they did the math of the work that went into the whole thing, they were making a little over $5 an hour. So yeah, that doesn't work. So it's one of those things where you need to really start with the math and say, what am I really getting out of this? And, if you can't replace the revenue, try to get some pipeline put together.
• 4:17
  And, if you can get a pipeline put together and close a couple of new deals, it might be a tough few weeks. But then you can say to the client, look. I'm sorry. You know, maybe if they're one of those really mean ones that come back and yells at you about something, you could turn around and say, you know what? This isn't working. I just really can't work with you anymore and say goodbye. Or, if it's more moderate, then you kinda give them notice and say, hey. You know, as my core business is changing, or it's changed, and I can't really continue helping you. Give them a month. So you got a tough month there, but you get some time to replace some of the revenue, work a few extra hours, and then, you pay the bill upfront, and now you've got a much better business and a much better life going forward after that month.
• 5:09
  Does that make sense? Does that make sense to you?
• 5:12
  Carly Ries: Yeah. It does. And I think the hard thing that people run into is sometimes when people are just getting started, they only have this one client.
• 5:18
  And so while I think you need to calculate, all the other like, how many hours you're doing, you don't want to be making $5 an hour. Your mental load, like just your stress, everything while you need to calculate all that. They're your only client. My only caveat would be you should probably hang on to them while they're your only client if they're paying the bills, start working really hard on LinkedIn. And start working really hard on closing those other clients.
• 5:46
  And when you get those clients, charge them a little bit more so that you have that padding and everything by losing this other client. Because I think in an ideal situation, Solopreneurs would have a few different clients where they can have that luxury, but sometimes that's just not the case. So while I think you should absolutely get out of that situation, you do need to to pay the bills. And we absolutely understand that part of it too. But if they are your only client, figure out if it's a fixable friction or if it's an actually fundamental mismatch.
• 6:20
  Because I think some people are nervous to bring up some issues that they're having and just kinda chalk it up to, oh, this is whatever, they're just so tough. When really there is maybe just miscommunication, and you need have that conversation too.
• 6:33
  Joe Rando: If you haven't told them not to call you after six, then they don't know not to call you after six. I mean, some people might intuit that, but, the fact is you need to say, look. You know, my workday ends at five or whatever, and let them know, because if it's always, and I was assuming in this conversation that you were at wit's end. You tried everything. But if you haven't communicated, then that's where you start for sure.
• 6:59
  Carly Ries: Start for sure.
• 7:00
  Joe Rando: Yep. And the other thing you can do, which usually solves a problem one way or another, is let's say it's a problem client or somebody that's, taking too much of your time or not quite done your business. If you're so inclined, say, look. This isn't working, but, you know, I'm gonna have to raise my rates. We talked about that in the last episode.
• 7:21
  You know, triple your rate. See what they say. They'll probably say goodbye. but, you know, sometimes raising the rates can make something that's not working, work. I don't think that's usually a solution, but, it's at least something in the toolbox of dealing with problem clients.
• 7:40
  Carly Ries: Yeah. Absolutely. And I think another really big thing to keep in mind is if you are at your wit's end and you do have the luxury to fire this client, keep it professional. It could be so hard to do, especially if you're totally fed up. You have got to take the high road in this situation because they will talk.
• 7:59
  If they're already a problem client, and let's say a mean one, not this special client, but the one that's actually causing problems. They have no issue probably causing problems outside of your working relationship too. So keep it professional, keep it clean, just end on the best of terms as you possibly can to help so that it doesn't impact your ability to get other clients moving forward. You do not want that one star review because you angered one of your past clients. And I think that can be hard to do if you're fed up, but you have to.
• 8:36
  Joe Rando: Yeah. One star reviews. Sometimes they help, but usually they're not so great.
• 8:41
  Carly Ries: Yeah. Exactly.
• 8:44
  Joe Rando: Yeah. Sixty days of notice is usually you know, whatever it is that you do, enough notice time that you're not gonna leave them in a lurch is a good idea. Sometimes if they are problem clients, you know, say forget it. I'm done. Goodbye.
• 8:59
  But, that way you definitely wanna take the high road. You definitely want to be professional. And like I said, if they're screaming at you on the phone, you could just say, hey. Look. This isn't working. I didn't sign up for this and appreciate the time we've had, but I think we're done. But, that's if they're off the rails, which, I've seen that. I have seen that. And I don't think that's an issue to take somebody that's being verbally abusive and say, I don't really need to talk to you anymore. But barring that Yeah.
• 9:33
  If it's, just a difficult situation or, like I said, that nonstandard client, keep it really, really, really professional, as you said, and give them enough time to get something else arranged so you're not leaving them in a lurch.
• 9:47
  Carly Ries: And the last thing I wanna say is if you have a few other clients and you have enough to live, but maybe this client that you have, allows you to take vacations and not just live. if you get rid of them and you just take an income dip temporarily, not only should you be focusing on getting that other client, but that's a really good time to work on yourself, work on your skills, work on your knowledge, do some competitive research, just to really look at how you can even better your expertise and take that time to refine everything that you do.
• 10:26
  Joe Rando: Can I disagree?
• 10:27
  Carly Ries: No.
• 10:28
  Joe Rando: I disagree. I think they take that time and you prospect, prospect, prospect.
• 10:33
  Carly Ries: Oh, no. I totally agree. That's why I said lead gen should be a thing.
• 10:38
  Joe Rando: Yeah. But I also think It's like, you know, that's really where you should be spending your time. If you need that money, you should definitely be spending a lot of that freed up time prospecting.
• 10:47
  Carly Ries: Yes. And we're gonna take the improv approach. Yes. And, because the only reason I say that is sometimes solopreneurs don't prioritize the professional development when they have the clients. So if you have any extra time to also do professional development in addition to your lead gen and prospecting, try to conquer both because you won't have that time once you get that new client.
• 11:11
  That's all I'm saying.
• 11:12
  Joe Rando: Fair enough.
• 11:14
  Carly Ries: fair enough. Well, listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. As always, please leave that five star review. It means the world to us, but it also helps us spread the word to other solopreneurs looking to build a life-first business. Share this episode with a fellow solopreneur who you think would find it helpful, and please subscribe to the show on any podcast platform, including YouTube, and we'll see you next time on the Life-First Solopreneur.
• 11:39
  You may be going solo in business, but that doesn't mean you're alone. In fact, millions of people are in your shoes, running a one person business and figuring it out as they go. So why not connect with them and learn from each other's successes and failures? At LifeStarr, we're creating a one person business community where you can go to meet and get advice from other solopreneurs. Be sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestarr.com.