Turning Clients Into Friends: Why It’s Worth Doing

While I’ve only ever had bad experiences from inviting clients to my place to work so far, if I had taken some of your advice I’m sure that would have been different. I have however encountered the reverse situation with the same desired effect: being invited to clients’ homes to work which has been great.

I have found that working or hanging out with other freelancers at each others’ places to be a great way of building both business and personal relationships.

This articles comes at an interesting time. I had a “friend”/client leave today. Without getting into details, I have now seen both sides of the friend/client relationship. I have some clients who I grab beers with and others where its strictly business. IMHO, the key to either extreme, is that you need to be business first, friends second. Its a fine line, my friends

There is a fine line with having a business relationship and friendship. I personally like to keep a business relationship. Bad experiences when you mix the two. My 2 cents

This is almost a repeat of somethings said in a previous article here.. unfortunately the archive are not working…. I 100% agree with Bejamshi.

Not fond of this idea at all. Business is business.

Yes business is business. Mixing the two is just asking for more troubles.

While I also take up issue with several points made here, it’s obviously working for this person. Andy clearly enjoys his work, his clients, has a balanced work & social life. And… he surfs. Not too shabby, so I’ll be milling these ideas over more than I would have liked to initially.

Some interesting feedback here, and I can completely understand the hesitation. It’s an entirely personal decision and comes down to how you like to do business. If it doesn’t work for you, don’t make it personal. Simple. But if you do like your clients to also be friends… I hope you enjoy the friendship as much as I do

great post Andy, thanks
IMO it depends on the client, you can’t be friends with all of them obviously, but I also think that if you become friends with your client both parties win and gain a lot of advantages, its probably still better though when working with your friend client to keep things separate and to keep a line between talking about work or friendship. same as if you write him an email to keep your work related issues very clear and not mixed in anyway with your friendship even if he becomes a very close friend.

So dangerous. Not into this idea at all. I have done this thing of allowing clients into my ‘other’ life, and I believe it is inviting trouble. Clients is clients, and though you can certainly have very friendly relations, sharing and comparing life experiences, letting them in to your personal life is quite another matter. Guys, don’t go there.

I think this is a case-to-case basis. I can’t imagine being “friends” with some of my clients, and I’ve always felt awkward when they treat me differently. However, with certain people (clients), this approach works, as long as between both parties there’s this understanding of when to be professional and when to be “friends”.

I’ve experienced the sort of business relationship camaraderie being talked about in this article a few times, and I have to say it’s one of the most enjoyable parts of working, whether it’s a 9-5 job or a freelance gig. But yes, it’s a case to case basis, and usually this sort of relationship just builds itself on its own — it can’t be forced, or even actively encouraged. See where the opportunity and prospect is, and make little steps towards it, but don’t rush.

I agree with the arguments in favor of caution. The problem works the other way too, when clients let friendships cloud their decision-making. They are more likely to accept sub-par work and tolerate excuses from a friend than a business colleague, which can not only derail a project but also cause resentment among the “non-friends” on the team who have to pick up the slack.

This doesn’t mean you have to be distant and cold. Being friendly and courteous to a client, asking about their kids, swapping stories about vacations, etc. are all part of being a professional. But because they are paying you, the nature of the relationship is — and has to be — fundamentally different from a friendship.

If you really want to step your business up a notch then it’s good advice to join your local Chambers of Commerce and networking groups. I tend to become friends with people long before they become actual clients. This makes the selling process a whole lot easier. Some of my best business relationships are people who are both clients and friends, and theyre always throwing us leads.

I consider your proposal quite a dangerous approach. It might depend a little bit on the industry you are working in, but I assume that even in a more creative industry such as advertising, doing business this way is just calling for trouble – for both sides.

Your client might feel unconfortable because he gets too personally involved. In case he just wants a “Business Relationship”, friendship might feel him obliged to give a better rates or approve mediocre work. Or, even worse, the boss of your client comes to that conclusion. How do you best tell a contractor that his contract is terminated because his work sucks if he’s your friend?

Some thing for the contractor: how do you argue to raise your hourly rate, how do you push forward decisions to be made be your client or tell him the ugly truth about his website, if he’s the one who made it?

It’s always good to have a friendly and trustful relationship with clients, but I prefer to keep things separated. If a client becomes your friend, terminate the contract and be just friends.

Don’t make friends to accelerate your business. Because you in essence betray them. Your interest would not be to become a friend but to win a customer…

If you become friends with your client its harder to say no to them when you have better paying opportunities and can’t take their project.

I myself like to think it that way. Treating your clients as your friend will definitely make your work more pleasing and at the same time having clients thing of you in the same way.

In a perfect world, you would get paid what you deserve when working for your friends (and after obsessing over all the details). But honestly, you generally don’t have the heart to charge them what you would charge to a normal business client. Know what I mean?

I don’t agree with the comment to “terminate the contract and be just friends” if it seems like you and a client are becoming friends. If you are both professional and understand the work, it shouldn’t be a problem to give constructive criticism or raise your rates, when appropriate. I have plenty of clients who I also consider my friends, and they know that “business is business” … but we also feel comfortable enough with each other that we have become great friends.

I think it’s happened so naturally for me with lots of my clients that it’s hard for me to “get” this other argument. However, it doesn’t work for all clients, and you just have to intuitively figure out who’s open for this and who isn’t. If it’s forced, it’s not going to work. But if it happens naturally, let it. Just be sure everyone understands that business decisions are separate from the friendship.

Jessica Satterfield
http://www.TheSatterfieldAgency.com

I turned a friend into a client and created a multi-million dollar business empire out of it … the joke is, we didn’t even realize that we were friends [my wife was the connection] until AFTER the deal was signed. Staying friends and cultivating more friends across the client organization was absolutely key to my (business) success. Great post and on the button … thanks!

I’ve turned friends (more like chummy acquaintances) into paying clients, but rarely the other way around. The clients-to-friends thing has worked for me exactly twice, and it wasn’t an effort — more like a natural happening. My hat’s off to anyone who can do this and make it work. Great article Andy.

While I’m all in favor of maintaining friendly relationships with my clients, I’m more than a little hesitant to have these relationships become friendships. Why? Because if something goes wrong in the business relationship, I’ve lost a friend as well.

Instead, I like to have friends and friendships for after-hours activities. Business relationships, such as those between me and the clientele, are for work hours.

I am a HR professional & intersted to join in assignmnets

I think it takes two. It takes a freelancer who understands how to handle friends as clients and a client who understands that a friendship doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be treated with a V.I.P. status over any other client.

I think the main challenge is getting a house by the beach. I think if I had a house by the beach I’d be too busy getting people out of it !!

Ever heard of Pandora and her box (okay that didn’t sound right)? And the saying don’t work for family/friends? Heed the warnings!

Human beings are greedy. Normal friends take advantage of friendships. I can’t imagine the client/friend conversion. How would one manage projects if a few clients become fast friends? They would demand a lot of attention and concessions (I nearly spelt concussions because that’s pretty much what it would feel like) and there goes the bottom dollar.

Sure, I’d have drinks and chit chat with my clients. I’d listen to their problems and give advice. But business is business and a line needs to be drawn.

no thanks.

I have occasionally turned clients into friends or friends into clients; however, I also enjoy having business relationships with people who would never be my friends. For instance, as a journalist, I’ve had lunch with people who would probably scare me in a social context!

Interesting I thought everyone would love this idea from the beginning, what a pity that we have these distorted values and separation of concerns between friendship and business.

In my opinion, of course it depends on both the freelancer and the client, if you have an asshole client that is just concerned about making money, not only on your project, but as the primary goal of this life, you ain’t gonna get too far in a friendship with him, you just wouldn’t connect with him even if you were introduced to him at a party.

BUT, if you client is a cool ass mother fucker, and you are a chilling freelancer with other things in your head apart from making more money, like surfing, playing an instrument, chilling and philosofying about a better life in your spare time, you two ARE going to get along just fine, regardless of the business environment.

I’ve had both types of clients, cool ass mother fuckers with whom I would go have a beer anytime and just talk about life, and then also the capitalist, unfair clients how care nothing about your well being and are just concerned about finishing the job even if that means you can’t have a social life nor sleep for 2 weeks straight, he just doesn’t care about you, nor about anyone else. It is a pity, that our society has created this kind of people.

Ferazzi, talks about the concept of friendship in his book, “never eat alone”, and encourages a friendship with your clients, we need to change the perception of business and friendship, changing it from thinking that YOU always have to win, that this is a business and there are no friends in business, to becoming a win-win situation, where you win LESS than your client, you care about your client reaching higher goals that yourself, but you are always winning more at your own level too, and that makes you better and bigger with every client that you help.

A successful example of the concept explained in the article happened to me this week.

I’m from Spain, from a little island called Mallorca, this week I went to see my client to the mainland, I took by best shirts and my sloppiest t-shirts, wasn’t sure how to dress up, you know, to give the right image to him… so I started of with a neat t-shirt, he was wearing a bright red t-shirt, jeans and sneakers, we connected from the beginning, went out for beers, had great conversations and talked about each others past and goals for the future, we connected without effort, without lying.

After the first stage of the project our plan is for him and his designer (I’m the developer in the project) to come to my city and chill here for a few days, helping them to setup an improved working environment with a version control system, the updated ruby on rails framework, and a short tutorial from my side to get them up and running with this new workflow which is going to make us all more productive.

My conclusion is that you can find cool clients, with money, with whom you connect and can actually enjoy working for them, for the money that you deserve, get to know someone cool, and open the door of trust for other projects to come down the line. You just have to chose your clients wisely.

Kudos to the author!

PEace

Interesting. Got me thinking how I have been doing things. For sure, I would consider some of my clients to have a friendly relationship with – some more than others.

Let’s make a distinction here.

1. the question should only arise if the client relationship precedes the friendship
2. you can care deeply about your client, their life and interests and wish personally for their success. does this make them a friend in the same sense as those whom you began with as a friend from the start? I somehow sense there is a difference, but over several years, maybe this difference might blur.
3. you SHOULD care about your clients as people. even love them. if you feel genuinely about your client and have a good working relationship with them, you will automatically feel warmth towards them which is a natural friendship. I think this type of friendship isn’t supposed to be overly close, but the aspect of a ‘measured distance’ shouldn’t take away from the GENUINENESS of the friendship. I consider most of my clients as friends and if we were to not do business together theoretically, I would want to keep the relationship alive simply for the pure sake of the friendship.
4. as Klaus says in his comment, you should NEVER be friendly for the sake of business as a tool. Friendship should come from genuine feelings. In any case, it will remain a one-way friendship if you use it to manipulate. remember, your client is smart. they will know if it’s fake.