The issue of whether it is ever okay to fire a client was the topic of my bi-weekly column for Editor-At-Large this week. Here is the link.
All I can say is that nothing pushes creative business owners’ buttons more than this topic. My thoughts in the column were no exception. I have received comments all across the spectrum from calling my words trite and uninformed to insightful and valuable. What it shows me is that we are at a crossroads as to the definition of integrity in creative business. Is it finishing because that is what you are paid to do no matter the abuse you have to endure? Or is it being unwilling to cross a sacrosanct line you, the artist, determine no matter where you are in the project? And if we are willing to value the line, will the industry (whatever your creative industry may be) reward us for having the integrity to stand up for what is intolerable to them or shame us for not being willing to “suck it up”? Clearly, I am of the “own your line” side of things.
Even if you have not done a good job expressing your process and the value of each step of your journey with your client, you still do not deserve abuse. Even if you have not talked about your thermonuclear line and why it exists for you, your art and your creative business, you do not deserve fundamental disrespect from a client, colleague or employee. Even if you are (partly) responsible for the mess that may have happened, you do not deserve to have your future as a creative business placed in (dire) jeopardy.
So yes, you have to do the work of communication and honoring your process as I talk about in my column, but you can never put yourself in the place of having to do what you do not or not being able to do your best work. Far more than just a lofty sentiment, it is also fundamental to your creative business.
For the most part, creative businesses are constantly selling to the next client. Some creative businesses have repeat business that they can rely on, but most have to find the next crop of new clients who have yet to experience your work. These new clients look to what has come before to decide whether your art is for them. If you are in the position of having to do that which you are not ultimately proud of and/or worse act in a way counter to what you most care about, who do you think is going to show up at your door next?
That said, I am actually completely against firing clients unless it is absolutely necessary. I define absolutely necessary as when you are unable to do what it is that you actually do and/or do your best work. Notice I did not say challenging or difficult or even Herculean. I said impossible. Usually, this boils down to one, maybe two, things you have to have — whether effective decision-making, timely payment or both for example. The reason is that the one thing is usually reflective of the foundation you depend on for your art to be what you intend. Without the one thing, everything crumbles and you do not have a business.
Of course, clients need to know the one thing and they need to be told more than once. If they decide to challenge your faith/conviction in your one thing, you also need to live your faith/conviction no matter what. I appreciate how hard this is, but ask what other choice do you have?
At the end of the day, what you put into the world as an artist has to matter to you first, your client second. The reason is straightforward: if you cannot create what is meaningful to you, you will stop doing work that matters, if not stop altogether. When that day does come, we are worse off.
Instead, why not go the other way? Celebrate your line, live to it because it more than worth it. Then we can start as other artists to join in the integrity and start being intolerant of those artists that do not live their line. Rather than calling those who would walk away “unprofessional”, we would honor the difficulty of the decision and applaud the conviction. And even if that day is not yet here, it will come if those with intrinsic integrity to who they are as creative professionals breathe the value of having the integrity. If you do not see this conviction around you, your art and your creative business, give yourself permission to lead. A world with better art is a better world. And make no mistake, conviction makes for better art.
