I’m A Quitter And Darned Proud Of It!

Never give up. NEVER, EVER!
The Customer is ALWAYS right.
Remove Can’t From Your Vocabulary.

All three of the statements above? A bunch of hooey. Pretty and pretentious nonsense that has a negative impact on the way you do business and earn a living, as well as a sound and savvy reputation.

Do you have clients that:

• Send you everything at the last possible second while still expecting you to meet a deadline?
• Constantly tell you how busy “they” are in an attempt to excuse the fact that they dropped the ball?
• Belittle your skills and expertise by repeatedly requesting discounts and price cuts?
• Tell you the check is “in the mail” every month, without fail – but it still takes several weeks for the payment to travel across town?

If you have clients that engage in any of the behaviors detailed above it’s time to create a plan to replace them with alacrity and fire them with the same speed. They certainly don’t appreciate you and they are not the types of clients that will refer you to others within their networks – unless it’s others as clueless and difficult to work with as themselves.

Is there anything worse than working on a project that takes up too much of your time for too little return on investment? In these situations, telling a potential client that you can’t take on the project is better for both of you. You don’t  feel pressured, rushed and overwrought and the client doesn’t get work completed with less than 100% care, commitment and zeal.

And, please, don’t get me started on the entrepreneur that says he or she CAN do ANYTHING. Design a custom WordPress theme and database? Absolutely! Ahem…never once mentioning that they’ve never designed a site in anything other than Microsoft Front Page. YIKES!

Fess up! We all have limitations, strengths and weaknesses and things we just flat out can’t do. Pithy platitudes don’t change that fact and the negative impact on your bottom line and your reputation can be nearly impossible to fix.

Honesty rules the day here, not ridiculous cheerleader chants. Be true to yourself by knowing and understanding your capabilities and your liabilities. Doing so ensures you are true to your clients.

Author information

Mallie Hart

After a long career as a graphic artist, web designer and ghost writer, Mallie found her true calling when personal social media embarked on the path leading to social business. While she still gets busy with graphics, most of her creative energy is now directed to unique social media content creation, curation and cultivation. Her dual love of graphic design and social media requires her to research, write about and promote a wide variety of topics while staying true to brand integrity. A research junkie - she majored in medieval history, Mallie enjoys the opportunity to find an interesting angle on just about any type of business or industry niche. When she’s not busy with The Media Barista, Mallie has been known to devour books (several per week), careen over rocks and roots on her bicycle and seek out the newest, edgiest music; all while drinking a lot of coffee.

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