Top 5 reasons to turn down a client

I’ve written before about how turning down clients is necessary to grow as a freelancer, but today I want to focus on signals that alert you that this job might be a good one to turn down.

1. The client is quote shopping. Government departments are great at this. They send you an email with a 20 page brief they’ve prepared, and want you to send back a quote to go along with the 20 other quotes they’re collecting.

Have you ever gone to a government website and seen how crap it was? Well it’s because they go with a cheap company that invariably don’t care about anything but fulfilling the conditions of the contract.

My advice: Save the effort and don’t even bother reading their brief. As soon as it’s clear that they’re collecting quotes, turn it down. My one exception is if you’re in a state of growth and you’re happy to take a pain in the arse job for the sake of building credibility.

2. The client wants too much. A small startup contacts you and wants you to do a site for them. They have a huge feature list which you know to do properly will cost $50k and they want to “just start small and build from profits”.

These jobs should come with a scope creep warning attached to them. You’ll do the job and a list of revisions come back that look a lot like features. You say it’s not part of the scope and suddenly they realise the brevity of the job they’ve asked for.

These jobs aren’t worth it. The exception is if the buyer is experienced in dealing with developers and understand things like scope.

3. The client wants it cheap. Cheap like this non profit business. The problem with doing work cheap is that if you always do it, eventually you’ll figure out that you’re not making enough money and you’ll end up in a cubicle working 9-5 because that actually pays the bills.

Buyers that want cheap work can pull their hair out trying to speak Indian.

4. The client will be a pain in the arse. If the client has been through 5 designers already. If the client is controlling the quoting process. If you missed one of the earlier signs but have a gut feeling that it’s going to be bad. If you have no clear contact who is in charge of the project. If your contact has no authority within the client organisation. If you’ve heard bad things from the grape vine.

All signs that you’re better off sending an email saying

Thanks for contacting me for a quote on your website. After looking through the design brief I’ve decided that our services aren’t a good match for your particular needs, and that you’ll get a better solution from a different provider.

Best of luck with it all.

5. The project is going to fail. Sometimes I’ll get someone looking for a quote for a website, and I talk to them a bit about their idea, and it’s just a terrible idea. Maybe they need a shitload of money that they don’t have. Or something else that just sounds ridiculous.

My advice: Stay away from shitty ideas. It’s no fun being around someone who’s going to blow some cash, and it’s even less fun when they blow it on you.

Summary

Our job is to educate clients, but sometimes, it’s impossible. And when it’s impossible, you’re saving yourself time and money when you politely decline before the situation turns bad.

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