Fire your clients

“Your fired”, a term made so popular by Donald Trump, however he uses it towards his would be employees. I suggest it works well for clients as well.

All too true with the technology industry and more specifically the web design industry, is the huge barrier between clients and firms. Knowledge is that barrier.

I spend so much time educating clients on the business of the web. So much in fact that for some clients I have contemplated adding a line item to their proposal for “education & training”. How frustrating is it to build a phenomenal website with a client-friendly content management system, only to find out two months later they want a quote for updates?

Then there are those clients that maybe watch one too many infomercials, and view the web as their ticket to millions. The first conversation goes something like this, “I have a great idea for a website that combines MySpace with eBay and has cool features like eHarmony”. What is that? A site that you can take a compatibility test, make them your friend and if you don’t like them anymore you can put them in auction? In all serious, I have had plenty of conversations that have sounded like that, and they all end with me quickly hanging up.

So where do you draw the line? What brings you to the point of no return? It all boils down to time and money. Are they waisting too much of your time without making you enough money? As much as your client cares about ROI, you have a bottom line too.