A powerful thing a freelancer can do for her career is to figure out when to fire the bad clients. Firing bad clients is an essential step on the way to finding better ones.
Identifying a client mismatch:
- The most obvious is a skills-based gap. They need something you’re struggling to do well.
- A temperament gap. They’re not treating you with respect.
- A quality gap. You want to do work that’s more difficult, sophisticated or esteemed, and they’re pushing you to cheap, fast and dumb.
- A pay gap. They’re paying you what you used to be worth, but as your skills and reputation have increased, you’re worth more now.
- A reputation gap. You don’t want to be associated with what they do or how they do it.
