Hi everyone! I’ve just filed my first LLC & am planning to open a vintage boutique in my city- I’m completely new to owning a legitimate business of my own. I thought this would be a great question to ask as I know I’ll be making many mistakes in my first year of business.
Please feel free to comment your favorite mistake!
how does one go about firing a client? “thank you for your interest in my work… but we’re not a good fit” or similar? Good luck in any case.
Yep pretty much this. You got it.
I fired 2 clients recently. Politely told them that the charges would go up by 50% next month onwards due to the level of service expected by them and hours spent on their accounts. Was a gamble really, if they agreed I’d make more money. If they left, I wouldn’t have the ‘guilt’ of having fired a client.
Pretty much. “We do not appear to be a good fit for what you’re looking for, we wish you all the best in finding a provider which better suits your needs” etc etc
I’m still thinking about how to phrase it. Part of me wants to just say that we’re too busy. Which is partially true. We are too busy to deal with her. She loves to suck up our time. Writes vague emails asking dozens of questions. Follows up with more questions for every answer. Gets on 2-hour long meetings where nothing is decided on her end. Nobody has time for that. She’s also threatened to replace us with a freelancer when she didn’t like a price on a proposal. Good luck lol. I’ve heard that before and it never goes anywhere. One person cannot replace the results that are derived by a team of dedicated on-staff experts. My job is to literally help her and if she doesn’t like the price there’s no reason to treat people this way
If I say we are too busy for her then it gives the indication of exclusivity, which I wouldn’t mind fostering that type of brand. In the future if she wants to expedite her marketing strategy or pay a premium for it then I’m happy to accommodate, but in my experience, people rarely change the way that they treat their vendors
Saying you’re too busy just says come back later.
Perhaps proposing billing for quotations and inquiries about items not clearly listed on a quote? Consulting on the quote or revision changes, etc… Either you’ll get to bill for the time, or they’ll go to someone else.
Raise your price dramatically, she may go away, she gave you a hint about that already. Implement a new rule that the first hour consultation is free, all other is invoiced at a high price. Track it, invoice her and insist on incremental payment or no more work. Meetings with endless questions and no decisions now make you money. You get to choose how your business operates.
I’d go a step further…get more people and her in particular on a retainer and then burn hours against it.