When to walk away..

I have been working with a difficult client lately. She is a really nice person, but is a difficult client! Why? Well when we meet up and discuss her project, I listen to the brief she is giving me and make notes. I then go away and start working on the schemes for her house according to the likes and dislikes she has given me in the brief. When I am ready to present my proposals to her, I arrive at her house, only to be greeted with the words... "I've changed my mind". By the time she has finished telling me what she has changed her mind about, I can already tell that everything I have done, based around the original brief is now totally unsuitable.

Now I am not unreasonable, and I agree that everyone can change their minds about a few things from time to time, but this client has now done this to me three times! The really annoying thing as well is that she doesn't ring me up at all to tell me that she has decided on something else, but waits until I arrive with my proposals!

I then realised that perhaps I hadn't explained exactly how this works, and I hadn't given her any boundaries so that as far as she was concerned, I would just keep on coming and going for as long as she wanted me to, so a few weeks ago I met with her I did have to have that talk. I explained that it was best if she really thought about what it was she likes, dislikes wants and doesn't want before letting me get started on a proposal. I explained that it was extremely frustrating and time consuming to base the whole scheme on something she has told me one week, only to find out that she has changed her mind the next week, and I also politely asked her to call, email or even text me if she has another change of direction, to prevent me from wasting my time.

Did this do the trick -well no it didn't! I met with her again last week and still she has changed direction and cannot decide what it is she really wants from me. I could see this going on for ever -it is a really draining experience and quite frankly I have other things to be working on, and so I decided to tell her that I suggested we took a break from the project altogether. I suggested that she had a good look through all the ideas I have given her so far, and really take some time out to decide where she wants to go with the project. In the meantime, I can use the time to work on other projects, and maybe I will go back to working with her in the future without feeling any of the resentment that is beginning to build up.

I was thinking that I can easily walk away from this job as I have plenty of other work to be getting on with, but I know that when I was starting out in business because I really needed the work, and wanted the clients I would do anything for them. But if we think about it, this sends out the wrong messages about us, and about how valuable our time is. So if you find yourself in a position where something is not working, or when someone starts to take advantage of your good nature, don't be afraid to politely walk away. Hopefully there will be a more pleasant client just waiting around the corner!