When you’re a freelancer, bad clients can be a real pain. While it’s tempting to keep a client simply because you have one, if you’re throwing away your best work, you may be hurting yourself in the long run.
Photo by VFS Digital Design
Prolific designer Aaron Draplin explains that bad clients will never be satisfied. While to a certain extent, this is the nature of freelancing, throwing away your best work on the clients you can’t see eye-to-eye with can make it worse for you. The completed work that represents you is sub-par, and you have less time for clients who might be a better fit:
Here’s you how you make a good logo: You show them good shit. Seriously, if you give them bullshit then they are going to find a way to be bummed. But if you sense that you have put your best foot forward and show them work you think is awesome and they kill it, then get out and drop the client. Because it’s not going to get it any better. Push it through a couple of rounds and then say “You know what guys, I’m not the right fit. I’m going to go and take naps instead of doing this.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean you should storm out the first time you disagree with a client. Be honest with yourself. If you turned in crap work, don’t be upset when the client thinks it’s garbage. But if you did the best possible work you could, and it still doesn’t get accepted, simply don’t pair up with that client for repeat business. Finish up your responsibilities with the client and then move on to ones that might be a better fit.
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