Unpopular take: firing a bad client made my income go UP, not down | Client Horror Stories - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
Unpopular take: firing a bad client made my income go UP, not down
Everyone says keep every client you can get when you're starting out, but I dropped a guy in Cincinnati who paid $800 a month and argued over every single invoice. Three months after I let him go, I had two new people who each paid $1,200 and never once questioned a bill. The difference wasn't luck, it was that I finally had the hours to actually finish work instead of defending it. Has anyone else cut a paying customer and been better off for it?
Did you ever stop and think that maybe the $800 guy was keeping your schedule full so you couldn't take on the better clients, or was it really just about the arguing? I see it a little different because I've had cheap clients that were a total pain but they filled gaps where I would've made nothing, and dropping them didn't magically bring in higher paying work. The two new clients at $1,200 might've come along either way, and now you're stuck if one of them walks. What happens when you lose a big client and don't have that steady $800 to fall back on?