When It's Time to Part Ways (Setting Expectations)
When you're a business owner, entrepreneur or freelancer, you are working for yourself. But not all clients are good clients, and you should know when it’s time to let them go.
There are no set rules that prospective clients can assume to know when working with you to include things like the scope of work, and when and how much, and by what you means you get paid. This is why you need to create a set of expectations that will govern how you work with others. You can set these expectations verbally, via email, or with a formal contract.
So my message today is about Communication Best Practices. Let me illustrate my point of view with a little story.
What Had Happened Was…
A couple years ago, I got a new client via email marketing. They had a small roster of voice actors who read book summaries— sort of like "Cliff's Notes" for business books. Instead of reading an entire book, someone could listen to one of these 5-minute audiobook summaries to get the key points of the book. (Corporations can offer these summaries as a type of professional development to their employees.)
I like the personal touch, so I actually arranged a short call with this new client to introduce myself formally and establish our working relationship and expectations. They were going to send me one or two summaries in PDF form, and I would record according to their standards and send them back.
Long story short, the client was unhappy with two of my narrations because of a few pickups that were needed. But instead of talking to me or emailing with me about their concerns, they stopped sending me work. After two weeks of silence (the first week I was on a vacation that I told them about), I inquired about the silence. Their response was that (and I’m paraphrasing), they wanted perfect narration with no errors or pickups needed. They didn't want to tell me anything was wrong with the files, just use them. (By the way, this was not expressed to me in our initial communications in any way, and I haven’t had ANY other clients in the past 3 years that don't allow for pickups.) Not only that, but they didn’t formally terminate me—I had to reach out to them to find out why I wasn't receiving work from them. It felt like they ghosted me and hoped I'd just go away!
It Can Happen to Anyone
Not long after this, I had a coaching session and I took a detour from our work to tell my coach this story as a gut check. She is has been an audiobook narrator for all of my adult life, so I value her opinion. Once I told her the story, she was shocked by the way they handled the situation.
Then she told me her own story: things got a bit hectic for her one week while caring for her elderly mother, and something unexpected happened. Her client let go abruptly and re-assigned the voiceover job to another actor. Mind you, they never gave her a firm deadline—they just assumed their project was not a priority for her.
Teachable Moment
These stories are disappointing, but also teachable moments: things can go downhill very quickly when you don't communicate your expectations of your client, and vice versa. While I think it’s up to the client to be clear about exactly what they want from you, the truth is that not everyone is so clear or professional.
Here are my tips for things you can share with prospective clients when you are determining the scope of work and setting expectations:
Let the client know that you’re willing to discuss anything that is not to their satisfaction, and that if they bring it to your attention, you’re willing to make it right. Although it didn't work in my scenario, I suggest speaking with new clients prior to beginning the project, so they can get a feel for your needs, background and the direction of the work.
If they want to part ways with you for any reason, ask them to do so in writing, and be clear that you still expect payment for your services, even if they don’t allow you to finish.
If you did great work and think this client would oblige, ask them for a testimonial or recommendation. Make it easy for them by offering to write a script or template that they can tweak. (Check out this Twitter chat summary. )
Fire Your Client? Maybe.
One last thing: don't be afraid to part ways with a client. Maybe they don't value your work (low rates) or they always ask you to do more and more work for free. Whatever it is, it's probably not worth holding onto clients that give you too much stress and don't value you as a professional.
Happy voicing!