Journal
Dropping Slow Clients
10 January 2006 › 10 comments
When to Fold ‘em?
Currently, this is a decision that I am wrestling with. Typically, I am pretty selective about the projects I accept, so that when I am working on freelance stuff, I can do so with maximum efficiency. Last year though, against my better judgment, I let my little brother convince me to do some pro-bono charity work. Without going into too much detail, the client paid money to a non-profit organization, for the website design package that I had “donated.”
Now, it’s not the working for free that bothers me, it’s the fact that this should be a really simple project, but has been dragging on since October. Typically, this is not the type of customer I would’ve accepted. Even if I was being paid, I would simply refund their money at this point, just to be done with it. Since neither one of these is a factor, I am unsure as to where to go from here.
This is not the first time something like this has happened. I have written articles in the past on Lack of Vision, and even wrote a feature for To-Done.com called Setting Boundaries on Burnout. None of those is really applicable to my current situation, so I’m unsure as to best course of action. I’ve asked the client to be more cooperative, but that has not helped yet.
I suppose I will just have to wait it out, and learn my lesson about blindly saying “Yes” to taking on additional work. I’m wondering though, have any of you ever been in situations like this, and how how did you deal with them? I could use a bit of advice as to how to keep afloat while carrying dead weight.
Discussion + Dissension
Comments closed after 2 weeks.
#1 Ara Pehlivanian
Your renumeration, whether monetary or the knowledge that you helped someone out, is secondary and shouldn’t even play a role in your decision to drop a client that’s dragging his heels. After all, I’m sure that the quality of the work that you’re delivering (or were going to deliver) wasn’t going to be any less than if you were paid for the work. So really, this is just like any other contract. And like any other contract, letting it drag on because the client can’t get his act together is a big “no no.” I mean if the roles were reversed, the client would probably not be too happy that their contractor wasn’t delivering on time. Whether the service was free or not. I don’t think it’s any less Christian to give and to expect professionalism.
My advice is to let the client go. If you’re not comfortable with that, then warn them that the consequence to their behaviour will be that you’ll let them go. And if they don’t shape up. Let them go.
#2 Chris Galfi
You should agree on expectations before the project begins, and even have it in writing. So later on, it’s easy to let the client know they are not fulfilling their role.
#3 Nathan Smith
Chris: That’s a good suggestion. Normally, that’s what I would do. However, with this particular situation, I had no way of knowing what I was agreeing to. I was “flying blind,” so to speak. However, I did email them my expectations.
#4 Mike Montgomery
Nathan,
Hope you had a merry Christmas, and happy new year.
It wasn’t clear to me, but I have the impression you’re waiting on the client for something, content, information, images, or decisions.
I would express a “qualified yes,*” and let them know that the project will wait until they provide [whatever it is you’re waiting for them to provide].
That way, if you actually get the content you need, you can quickly wrap it up.
*Merlin at 43folders (a Getting Things Done blog) wrote a great post about the qualified yes.
#5 Ryan Heneise
I agree with Ara. You may want to think about letting the client go. You should evaluate your workload and your other clients. If this client is draining your energy and the project is not moving forward, then it’s not fair to you or to your other clients to keep working on this project.
I had a similar experience when I was just getting started, before I had learned to clarify requirements and get a deposit before starting work. The project dragged on for months, and the client was very difficult to work with. After a long period of silence and several unanswered emails I informed him that I would no longer be working on his project, and that if he would like to pay for the work that I had done to that point then I would deliver the work on CD (it was a substantial amount of work). I never heard from him again. Although I regret that I did not handle it more professionally from the beginning, I was incredibly relieved to be free of that draining responsibility.
Nowadays I have the client sign a contract even if it’s pro-bono. Most of the time though, I’ll give a discount instead, or I’ll make sure that there is some way that I can extract some value from the project.
#6 matthew Smith
Nathan,
Now I see why your suggestion to make the client KNOW that they are solely responsible for content is so strong :)
They only thing here that I see as a “christian”, which is any different from what Ara or Ryan have said above is that a complicating factor in the matter is that if you withdraw from the “contract”, that it has the possibility of shedding poor light on your brother’s charity? (although I don’t know the details).
I am learning the details of needing contracts these days, as the phrase “fences make good neighbors” come to reality.
Recently the org. I work for had some “pro bono” video donated for short-term evangelism trip promotion, (we didn’t ask for it). The guy put TONS of time and effort into producing this promotional video and when we neither had time nor money to create a whole promotional package for his product (not to mention a lack of desire because the lack of quality), the dude has begun to turn argumentative. Leaving us wondering how we got wrapped up in it? He can’t believe we’re wasting his “humble efforts”.
So, needless to say, I feel your pain. Sorry I don’t have much advice :(
#7 Beth
I was put in a terrible situation like this once. A friend convinced me to take this pro-bono project. The client told me what they wanted, and I came up with several iterations to show them. They didn’t like any of them (they were pretty good designs, I used them for other projects later) and was insistent they wanted a “comic book” feel. (Although this really wasn’t a good approach for their particular organization)
I tried to execute this tastefully, using sites like Cartoon Network’s for reference. The client still was unsatisfied and went as far as instructing me to use “Superman colors only” and Comic Sans. As soon as I heard the words Comic Sans, I jumped ship. I emailed them and explained I was not a suitable designer for this particular project, and that the sketch processes had already cost me more time than I’d allotted for the entire project. (This had been drug out for months) I then referred them to some resources for creating their own website at a relatively low cost, because it was evident to me at this point they wanted that My First Website, Geocities type of feel.
I guess what I found most bizarre was the client had seen my own portfolio and still thought I’d be able to give them a site like this. I always ask clients to show me a few websites they really like before I start a project, to get an idea of what sort of design they might be interested in. Instead of referring me to websites this person sent me a bunch of book covers and other random things, which should’ve been clue number one. If a client can’t follow instructions, how are you supposed to?
#8 Lance Willett
I sympathize completely with your situation, as I have been in those same shoes twice since launching my freelance business.
The first time I waited, waited, and waited some more. Finally I actually gave up on the client and walked away. It was not a good situation since the person was a brother to a good friend of mine.
The other time, more recently, I basically bombarded the client with emails and phone calls – probably once a week at least. The project was stagnant for about 5 months, but I finally wrapped it up. I think my constant attention finally worked – I even told the person in one phone call that I cared more than they did about the project. They seemed to respect that somehow and got moving after that.
Both times I wished I hadn’t accepted the job! I guess what you can take away after it’s all over is the lesson of giving a new project possibility the “qualified yes” that Mike mentioned above. Then, always use a contract like Ryan mentioned – that is a great way to keep everyone honest and on the same page.
So my advice: send the client a final note – maybe give them a week or two to deliver. After that, you can drop them knowing that you tried your best to finish the project.
#9 Nathan Smith
Beth: “Comic Sans,” gotta love that! It is quite possibly the most abused font ever, right up there with Papyrus. I agree, it’s very tough to deliver a quality product when there is little or no vested interest by the actual stakeholder.
Sometimes I feel like an adoption facilitator. I get all the things lined up for the person to take the baby, but I know in the long run it will die of neglect. Lance, I think I will take your’s and the others’ advice, and give them a sort of ultimatum. I guess we could consider it like a time-out, there the client takes too long to respond: “Your session cookie has expired,” – client dropped. ;)
#10 Ryan Heneise
My first client ever insisted on Papyrus. It was humiliating.