First Fire Email - let talk about firing a client - that's always fun! 😅 I'm sure you had a 💩 experience, just reply to this email and tell me about it. I love reading Clients from hell stories.
You're totally allowed to fire a bad client
I like to think that I'm a nice guy, but I must admit, I started my career as a pushover when it comes to clients. I ate it all up until I was finally done and I snapped.
I've experienced all the classics signs of bad clients, from not paying in time (duh!), making the logo bigger, ghosting, scope creeping, calling me late and on weekends... All the jazz.
I even once had a phone conversation with a client while his spouse was shouting from another room "tell him to make the website more bluer". True story.
But I was finally fed up when a client with whom I was working with on and off for over a year, and did (according to him) a terrific job every time, after last-minute changes, long weekends, jUsT oNe mOrE tHiNg bEfOrE wE aRe dOnE, etc... When we were doing a fairly big project, and I've agreed to a tight deadline (dumbass) to help him launch this thing, I was working the weekend when he sent me an email on a beautiful Saturday afternoon:
"...I am looking forward to your final designs, please book at least 3 hours on Monday so we can go over every mistake you are going to make, and I'll guide you point by point how to fix them..."
At that moment I just lost it and unloaded all the frustration I've been gathering over a few years in one very angry email, maybe even more than he deserved. I fired his ass, telling him I'm done with him, and he can find someone else to yank on a Saturday with his bullshit.
It felt like a breakup, but it helped me realise that I shouldn't be miserable because of what I claim to love doing.
Since then, I set clear boundaries and expectations with every client, based on how I want to work, communicate, deliver and hand over every piece of work. And you know what? Everyone is happy. As long as we are all on the same page.