'Breaking Up Is Hard To Do' by Alexandra Design

Does a client have you working until midnight on a brochure they needed yesterday? Do they take their time supplying content, then complain about your turnaround time? Perhaps they haggle on price after you've set up the job? It may be time to re-evaluate the relationship. As they say, "Breaking up is hard to do," but if the actions of one client are making it impossible for you to enjoy your working life, don't be afraid to call it off. A wise four year old girl informed me recently, that she "broke up with ballet". Apparently she'd lost interest, wasn't participating, wasn't that keen on the teacher and was just a bit tired from all the other goings on. So she decided to call it off. Just like that. As adults, have we lost our ability - or courage - to take ourselves out of a situation that's making us unhappy, or simply adding to our stress-load? I broke up with a client a while ago. He contacted me early in my self-employment journey when I had more bills than orders, and I agreed to accept a reduced hourly rate for whipping up simple artwork jobs. My logic at the time was that having a regular client was worth taking a slight loss on my rates. All very well, until he stopped paying the bills. I let it go for a couple of weeks, during which he phoned me at home after 10.00pm on a Sunday night requesting a "super urgent" business card, offering to pay extra if I could do it straight away. So I did the job and billed him, adding the invoice to the growing pile on my desk. After a couple of more weeks I sent him copies of all invoices outstanding, asking him nicely to get them sorted... and waited. After a few more reminders, he finally came back with the old "cashflow problems at the moment" line. Now, I'm not an impatient person, but I do have my limits. These limits usually kick in when I realise I'm being taken advantage of. So I sent off a zip file of all the artwork I'd set up for him, deleted the lot at my end, told him to forget the invoices and to "lose my email address". It felt good. I could do without the money. I could do without the late night phone calls and watery excuses. I could do without spending 90% of my energy on 10% of my client list. In fact, it felt just like breaking up with a nightmare boyfriend, or throwing out the expensive alarm clock that never worked properly. It was liberating! So when little miss former-ballerina told me of her break-up, I didn't ask why. I didn't think for a moment that it's a shame she gave up so easily. I just smiled and thought how great it is, to meet someone who possesses the courage to make a change. Leisa Dent Alexandra Design www.alexandradesign.com.au