How Do You Know You’re Working With A Bad Client?
While it’s best to weed out bad clients before a contract is signed and the project begins, often times it doesn’t happen that way. I recently shed the weight, stress and hassle of a “bad client”, so I want to share that experience and five warning signs of a client you should avoid at all costs.
So how do you identify a bad client?
1. Your client asks for several face-to-face meetings or lengthy conference calls before the project begins.
Initial meetings with clients are like job interviews — it should only take one or two meetings for both you and the client to decide to work together and start the project. I met once with my ex-client before we signed an agreement, but… after several meetings over the course of six months, the project was going nowhere and the client was spinning her wheels. The face-to-face meetings were not only time consuming — they were a waste of time. The client used the meetings to talk herself through what she wanted to do. After six months and no payment, the project was going nowhere. That should have been my clue to cut and run.
