Letting Clients Go

We have all heard the horror stories – nightmare client abuses anyone and everything in your creative business.  From bullying, non-payment, screaming, berating, demeaning emails/phone calls/meetings, the wrong client can sap the very life force out of you, your employees, even your art.

Too often, the wounds are self-inflicted.  If you do not pay enough attention to defining who and what your creative business stands for, the specific art and ethos behind the art, then it can not be a surprise when someone who really does not want or value what you offer becomes a client.  Such is the price of trawling and, for those of you in this camp, if you quintupled the price of working with the wrong client, maybe you would invest more (read: Mount Everest more) time in finding the right client.  However, even if you have worked diligently to put yourself out there and to find the clients that best suit you, your art and your creative business, misfires can still happen.  Simply, a client might lie (mostly to themselves) about what it is they actually care about, pretend to be something they are not, or just have a manner that does not fit with yours.

No matter the reason the wrong client became a client, a serious consideration has to be whether to let the client go or not.  Most certainly, the decision is easier if you have worked to define who you are to your client, but even if not, the decision does need to be made.  Like cancer, continuing with the wrong client will spread and infect every aspect of your creative business.  Better to think through all of the permutations and costs imposed by the wrong client before you decide to barrel through.  Before I go through three of my top considerations, I will say that, in most instances, letting go of the wrong client is almost always the right decision.  You do not need the money that badly.  Your self-respect and that of your employees is invariably worth more than they are paying.  Better to say goodbye to a bad fit with integrity than keep on and watch your integrity walk out the door with a client that does not deserve it.

You Will Not Win.  First among the considerations to lose a wrong client is to forget that it will all work out in the end.  It will not.  The wrong client will never value your art.  You will have to compromise somewhere.  Money will be an issue as it always is when the thing is not worth the art behind the thing.  The ink and paper is never worth the art they create, even if it is gold and diamonds.  Either the end result will be something you are not proud of or it will cost you dearly for it to be so.  In some instances, you might not get the credit you are hoping for.  You will definitely not get the rave reviews you need.  The best you can hope for with the wrong client is that you get through it relatively unscathed and, like a silly romantic comedy, everyone forgets the project almost immediately after it is done.  Most likely, there will be significant damage – even if you do not realize it immediately.  Underwhelming performance or over-taxed effort come at a heavy price to your reputation and good will.  You only have your name after all.

The Right Clients Suffer.  The dream client lets you do what you do.  Design just flows, process is respected, you do your best work and your client believes in you.  The wrong client is the exact opposite – they do not believe in you and do not trust you.  Ironic, you will almost always have to work harder for the wrong client than the right one.  Ironic because you should be working twice as hard for the client that actually respects and cares about you and your art as opposed to the one that does not.  In almost every respect then, continuing to work with the wrong client, especially if they are paying the same amount as a great client, cheats the great client.  Were that you had limitless resources, but you do not.  What do you think your great client would think if they knew you were working twice as hard for someone else?  Why choose to devote the majority of resources to try to satisfy someone you cannot?  Better to work harder on delighting those who love you.

Keeping The Wrong Client Is Arrogant.  The wrong client for you is the right client for someone else.  If you come from the place that you want your client to have the best experience/art possible no matter who they are, then trying to do what you do not is mean.  Whether it is ego, fear or delusion (see first consideration), keeping a client that wants something other than what you do robs another artist of the opportunity to shine.  What is soul sucking to you is life-affirming to them.  In your belly, if you know someone else would do a better job than you, then ask yourself why you choose to deny your client the experience.

Rather than choose to end a relationship with anger, why not go another way.  Continuing on with the third consideration, humility dictates you knowing that you are not able to meet the goals of your client.  Why not do everything in your power to ensure that you put them into the hands of someone who will?  Will it be a hard conversation?  Of course.  However, approached well, with a sense of integrity of who you are and what you care most about, you will be able to reach your wrong client.  For instance, it could be that your client just cares about getting more for less and your goal is to design to the appropriate budget.  Taking the time to explain what you are all about (whether or not you have done it before) and then taking even more time to find your client the right home speaks volumes about you, your art and your creative business.  Your client may not ever appreciate your decision to let her go, but others will.  No one said integrity was easy.