When you run your own business, especially in the first year or two, you are desperate to make the business a success and this will often mean taking on clients that don’t feel quite right and agreeing to opportunities that seem too good to be true.
In the early days of setting up your business it is more important than ever to follow those gut feelings and listen to that niggling feeling that something isn’t quite right.
The best example of this that I can give you is those clients!
There is lots of research and stats to show that you tend to spend more time on those awkward clients (who are usually bringing the least amount of money into the business) than the better clients who are happy with what you are doing and are willing to pay good money for it too.
If you speak to a potential client that would like to work with you but something inside is saying this is not right, then don’t do it! When I first set up Creative Content Company I very often made this mistake; the client might say they only pay at the end of the month, they would try to cut my fees or ask me to do more than I was offering – but as a new business I saw that as a new client with money which would make my business a success; how wrong I was!
When 3 months later the client still hadn’t paid and then claimed they were not going to as I hadn’t got as many leads as they hoped for (something I never sell my service on, offer or guarantee) I was gutted.
Luckily for me it was a service not a product so I didn’t need to pay out money for a product and end up being money down; but I was time down – in this example I had spent hours for the last 3 months working on their social media presence and they had received sales through it too but they expected one a day through social media and although this was never something I confirmed they wanted it.
I now have contracts, agreements, deposits, tgerms and conditions and similar things in place to protect me and the business but you can never protect yourself as much as that gut feeling so before saying Yes – stop, think and confirm with yourself that it is the right thing to do.
It will save you a lot of time, money, heartache and stress in the long run!
