Avoiding Clients From Hell

You have heard the horror stories of the clients from hell. You know the clients who drive a freelancer to madness by making it impossible for them to succeed and get paid.

If you want to avoid having your own horror story, you need to know how to avoid these types of clients. Here are the red flags you should watch out for.

1. "I (or my family or friend) could do this easily."

Any client that says this while trying to get you to lower your price or rush a job does not respect the value you bring. Clients only say this as an excuse to make you believe you are worth less. If they genuinely know someone that can do the job, they would respect the effort it takes.

2. "I need this ASAP."

If there isn't a real reason for rushing a job, like an already in-progress marketing campaign or a serious time-sensitive issue, the client may not respect your time.

3. "Can you please lower your price?"

Sometimes there are real budget issues that the client may not be able to afford you for the job. However, they shouldn't be stuck on you lowering your price. Instead, they should work with you to adjust the scope of work to fit the budget. Lowering price without changing anything else is giving away free work.

4. "No one else has been able to complete this job."

If multiple other people failed at this job, the other people aren't the problem. Very few projects are complex enough that numerous people would fail unless the client put them in situations that lead to failure.

If a client has any of these red flags, run away as fast as you can.