Before you gasp & slam your laptop shut, bear with me. I promise I’m not crazy… well, only a little crazy:)

As a disclaimer – let me start by saying there are exceptions to everything. If a potential client is asking you to do something against your morals or standard of ethics, you should never work with them – ideal or not. If a potential client is abusing their relationship with you, you should seek legal counsel as to how to end your working relationship. It’s also never acceptable for a client to try to haggle your prices or force you to offer services that do not align with your business model.

There are exceptions to everything, and I do not want you to think I am telling you to take every paying client in the first year.

As long as a client does not fit one of the criteria above, I do think it’s appropriate to take clients who are not-so-ideal in year one. Here are 3 Reasons why: 

In Year One of your business, you are still learning who is (& who is not) your ideal client.

It’s important to take risks – to learn & grow. For example, you may be a hand-letterer. You never thought you would design logos but someone approaches you about hiring you for that service. You do it & in return find that you love the process of logo design!! Or maybe the opposite happens & you find that it will not be a service you offer again! By taking on that client, you are able to try your hand at a new service & determine whether or not it should be one you offer.

In Year One of your business, you’re building a portfolio AND you’re building experience.

We tend to forget about the experience part of the equation. Do we want to have a portfolio that speaks to our ideal client? Absolutely! But we also have to realize that some of those not-so-ideal client situations are the ones that bring us the most experience. For wedding planners, planning a wedding with more challenging logistics can teach us so much about what to do next time we’re in a similar situation. For photographers, capturing a wedding with a tighter timeline can give you experience for when & if that time comes again. We have to have the not-so-ideal experiences to be better prepared for all the experiences in the future.

In Year One of your business, you’re pinching pennies & building that business checking account.

8 out of 10 businesses fail in the first 18 months. Of those, 50% fail in the first 5 years. Those statistics can be a little scary, can’t they? In Year One (and even into year Two, Three, Four, Five & so on…) there will come moments when we have to remember that we’re a business. Yes, we are doing what we do because we love it & that never means we should be taken advantage of or put in a comprising position (remember those disclaimers above). However you’re business needs to be sustainable. You need to make a profit & that means bringing in revenue – revenue that can come in the form of not-so-ideal clients.

 

What do you think? Have you worked with a not-so-ideal client for any of the above reasons? 

 

 

 

xo! kat