Client red flags: Recognising, dealing and getting rid of annoying clients from hell

If I have learned one thing the past few years, it’s recognizing annoying clients. Clients from hell, Annoying clients or extremely time-consuming clients. They are a total pain in the *ss, and should be avoided at all times.

Here’s how you recognize them:

Recognizing, dealing and getting rid of annoying clients from hell

After long-term travel, it’s obvious that you’re in desperate need of money.

You need to build your travel funds again, your backup fund and return to your normal lifestyle, which is more expensive if you’re coming back from Asia into the Western world.

That’s why I made these stupid mistakes in the past – simply because I was in need of money.

I want to write this blog post to remind myself and to help you recognize these annoying clients from hell!

Recognizing annoying clients from hell

Fortunately for all business owners, annoying clients are easy to recognize.

Run, run as far as you can if someone you might want to work with has one of these symptoms:

1. They complain about your price. They’re always on a budget, they always want to lower your price and
2. They don’t want to sign your terms or contract. As a blogger, this happens to me all the time. People just don’t take you seriously. But I am running a business. So sign the contract or I won’t start. Simply as that. Because, why wouldn’t you want to sign the contract? It protects both of us and just makes things clear. Ok? Got it? Please sign it, okaybye.
3. They don’t want to accept your payment plan. Secure yourself and your payment by invoice multiple times, instead of one time the full price. This is a must if you might suspect that a company is filing for bankruptcy soon (also, see point number 1). Offering a payment plan is especially important with large projects of multiple weeks and if a client doesn’t accept that, it’s a big red flag for me.
4. They want to do it themselves. This is one of the most annoying clients because they secretly want to do it themselves. Nobody can do it like them, they have already fired multiple people before you and they always have comments on your work. SO annoying!
5. Having multiple contact persons. Having one contact person is a must if you want to successfully work with a company. You’ll notice this problem if you call or get emails from multiple people even before you started!
6. They don’t know why they hired you. I recently started working with someone who could specify what she needed. But the longer we worked, I noticed they didn’t really have a strategy or knew what I was doing and why. I had to explain everything I did, they called me for advice (which I usually schedule an invoice as a strategy call) and just made sure they got worth every penny and more. Really annoying, because it feels really unprofessional and I felt like underpaid.

Dealing and getting rid of annoying clients from hell

1. I’m sure you recognize client from hell #1 as soon as he sends an inquiry. If you have a feeling you’re dealing with Mr. #1, just send a higher quote than normal, have him lower the price and everybody’s happy. It’s often not about the price, but about the negotiation.
2. You’ll notice Mrs. #2 before you start the project, so it’s simple. Just don’t start. Never start before signing anything, and just let them know you’ll not start working until they sign. If they don’t: you’re better of not working with them than working with them, because I guarantee you they’ll be trouble!
3. What’s up with not accepting the way someone works? Mr. #3 must have a d*mn good reason not to accept a payment plan. Make sure they sign the contract and keep proof of everything you do, all communication and invoice before the project is finished if you decide to work with them. I’m pretty sure you’d have to wait months for your payment…
4. Number #4 is hard to discover before you start working with them, but one red flag is over communication. They’ll literally stalk you because they need to know something. Hhmm.. scary. In your introduction call/meeting you can ask if they’ve worked with people before on this project… and if you already started working with them: do it their way and get it over with asap…
5. Number #5 is quickly discovered. Make it part of your contract to add a contact person, the one and the only person you’ll talk with regarding this project.
6. Deal with Mrs. #6 by asking in your first call or meeting about their strategy. Tell them what you do for a living, and all your packages, including the ones they’re not interested in, so you can always tell them later on you do this for a living and that they should pay for ‘free advice and strategy plans’.

If you’re looking to work with me, have a look at my services here.

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