James Wilding's Weblog

Happy Cog’s Greg Hoy recently wrote about how to “figure out which deals are actually worth closing” when it comes to website design. Here’s my take on the same subject, from a small business’s point of view.

When I first started doing bits and pieces of freelance web design and development, I thought I should take on whoever came my way but I learnt pretty fast that that was a mistake. Because lets be honest: some clients are awful.

Finding the right clients is really, really important. The right clients help you to build your business, both by keeping things simple and helping you work well, and by putting you in touch with new work. Good clients beget good clients.

Similarly, bad clients beget bad clients: time spent dealing with hassle, poor communication, a changing brief and any number of other pitfalls is time you could have spent learning new skills, meeting your peers, or improving your work flow. Bad clients are toxic: they drain your business of its energy now, and they stunt future growth.

So from the point of view of a small business, here’s what to avoid:

The Miser

This is the client with a big long list of requirements and a tiny budget. This is a sign of completely unrealistic expectations, which expectations will probably apply to other aspects of your work, too. I once met a lady who asked me to build an ecommerce website for less than £350 in two weeks. I said no.

It’s pretty easy to spot misers up front: you’ll get a good sense of them from talking through their brief and asking about their budget. Avoid them.

The Micro Manager

This is the client who has lots of “good” ideas for her website/project, and insists that you implement them. All of them. Exactly as she asks.

Micro managers will treat you more like a slave or a robot than an equal, insisting that you implement everything they ask down to the last, unrealistic, crazy detail. These people won’t take no, even when you explain why their ideas are unrealistic or just plain wrong.

It’s more difficult to recognise a micro manager before work starts, but there are signs: they tend to be highly strung, dismissive, and a little bit false (they’ll agree with things without really agreeing to them). Trust your gut reaction and walk away if a working relationship feels wrong.

The Absent Owner

This one is similar to Hoy’s “Vanishing Boss”, but worse. Hoy’s Boss disappears for most of the project only to come back at the end and ask for major changes. The absent owner walks away from the project and leaves you with no-one to liase with: for small business work, the manager is often also the project team, accountant, secretary, etc, etc… If you’re working with someone who is never there, the work will never get done — and you’ll never get paid.

Judge whether someone will be an absent owner based on their working patterns. Do they take a long time to get back to you about an estimate? Ask some discrete questions about their other commitments: do they seem too busy to focus properly on a new piece of work?

Some clients think that it’s OK to leave you to it once a design or development project has started: it’s your job to make them understand the importance of regular communication.

The Corporate Guy

Lastly we have Corporate Guy (and for some reason they are always men): the one who speaks in management jargon. It’s easy to make jokes about this but anyone who actually has to work with a jargon-speaker will tell you how difficult the jargon makes things: goals and expectations become unclear, roles and responsibilities become fuzzy, and meetings are bloody awful.

I met someone like this a few weeks ago and turned down a job worth a few grand because, after an hour on the phone with the guy, I was no clearer about what he wanted.

This type is easy to spot: you can tell them as soon as they open their mouths!

Conclusions

It might be tempting to accept any work from anyone (especially when you’re starting up) — don’t. Keep a focus on quality clients and you’ll be more able to do quality work right from the start.

PS: it goes without saying that (since I try to follow my own advice), none of my clients fall into these categories. Thankfully :)