This month, two clients dropped projects that netted me over $1K monthly. I saw it coming, too. No, they never said they were thinking about it, but the vibe was there.
You know that vibe – it starts with communication waning or disappearing altogether. Emails go unanswered. Same with phone calls. Invoices get paid, but not acknowledged. Or maybe they go unpaid and your attempts to get payment go unanswered. No feedback on work. No questions acknowledged or answered. Nothing. It’s as though their offices packed up and moved in the middle of the night.
In an attempt to reconnect, I asked direct questions, inquired on other projects that were mentioned earlier, and tried to engage the clients. Silence. I’ll be honest – I knew at the beginning of this month that both clients were going to be gone soon. So how do projects disappear when the ideas were so solid and the writing up to what was expected? From this chair, it’s because often clients don’t understand or know how to work with outsourced help.
Things for both gigs became shaky at the beginning. Since they were both online projects, someone had to actually post the projects. Let’s take two ultra-busy clients and add one more thing to their lists. That’s where both projects went out of control. Neither client wanted to relinquish the keys to the online kingdom, so to speak, so I was left meeting weekly deadlines for work that’s still not posted months later. In both cases.
This is one variable we cannot change. Clients want to work with you but don’t understand how much time is involved on their side. Or they’re so into control you’ll never be trusted to help post. I offered help. Nothing doing. Both wanted to do it themselves, one insisting on vetting and tweaking. Perfectly acceptable practice, but at what cost to your investment in the writing? I know there was at least $3K in work I’d performed sitting untouched on the other side of the email.
This post, I guess, is more for clients. When you start working with contract workers, consider just how much time you’ll need to invest in that collaboration. Is there a way to give your contractor access and a modicum of control without giving away the company secrets?
And writers, how do you help overworked clients when it’s clear they don’t want that level of help? Short answer – you don’t. But you can plan for the obvious, which is what I did. I had both gigs replaced before they disappeared. I hate to say it, but it was almost a relief because I was tense waiting for it to happen and I’d taken on a bit more work than I could handle.
Are you able to see things like this coming? What are some of your experiences?
4 responses to “Planning for the Obvious”
Yeah, the waiting is so awful it's a relief when they're gone.
When they linger and shuffle their feet, I get confrontational. I say outright, "Look, this isn't working. Here are some suggestions I think will help. (And then I list them). I'd love to hear your ideas. But if we don't implement changes immediately, I need to resign."
It takes too much out of me on too many levels to watch it fade away, even when I'm replacing it. I'd rather make a clean cut and cauterize the wound.
Maybe because I have plenty of work in front of me, it didn't really shake me. It was a little frustrating, but in both cases (and one you and I have talked about, Devon) I shrugged, exhaled, and moved on. If these had been my only two clients, I would have panicked and stressed. They were a decent monthly total, but not the largest of the checks coming in, thankfully.
I like your idea. I was inches from suggesting that to one of them. There were a few more things going on there that was making the work harder to accomplish. Not so hard that I stressed, but it was taking more time than was necessary. I was beginning to feel a bit resentful that my requests for information were unanswered.
Like Devon I tend to ask pointed questions early on… and you know what? Sometimes clients just quit the project… often without saying anything. I have a mental picture of one gal now being so embarrassed she won't say anything… I can't fix this sort of thing.
I can usually see the signs coming – especially if it's a client I've worked with a couple of times previously. This happened to me last year with a client I'd been working with for almost two years. Looking back it was for the best, and I learned once again why continuously marketing is so important.