#011: How to Spot Bad Clients Early (and How to Gracefully Fire the Ones You Can No Longer Serve)

Smarter Freelancing: Freelance Work | Getting Clients | Freelance Writing | Freelance Design | Ed Gandia

Not all clients are created equal.

Some are a true joy to work with. They value your expertise and experience. They never complain. And they happily pay you top dollar for your work.

Then there are those who are just plain difficult. :(

They complain. They beat you down on price. And they always want it yesterday.

As a solo professional, your long-term happiness depends on what types of clients you work with.

And the better you become at spotting bad clients BEFORE bringing them on board, the better off you'll be.

For this discussion, I brought in two of the industry’s top pros on the topic of identifying good (and bad) clients and projects: Anastacia Brice and David Ackert.

Anastacia Brice formalized the Virtual Assistance profession in 1997 by founding AssistU.com. She’s trained, coached, and certified more than 1,000 talented VAs who now have heart-centric businesses doing work that lights them up for clients they’re passionate about supporting. Anastacia’s also a business coach, writer, community builder, italophile, and a happy girlie girl who finds biz foundations and biz standards two of the sexiest things in the world!

David Ackert has served in the corporate, education, and non-profit sectors as a trainer, marketer and strategic planner since the mid ’90s. Through his company, The Ackert Advisory, he has developed and implemented business development programs for numerous national legal, accounting, and financial service firms. He is the founder of Practice Boomers, a distance learning program that teaches business development skills to service professionals internationally. You can read his work at www.AckertAdvisory.com and watch some of his business development videos at www.4WaysToGetMoreReferrals.com.