If demanding and negative clients are keeping you up at night, it's time to re-evaluate whether these clients are worth your aggravation. As a service provider, you may be inclined to accept whatever business comes your way. This approach, however, has serious drawbacks. Not only do challenging clients drain your energy, they also take away from time you may devote to good clients and other business objectives. Furthermore, these challenging clients create a host of hidden expenses.



Difficult clients are easy to spot. They arrive late for meetings, call you at all hours of the day, interrupt other business transactions, and generally make themselves a nuisance. They make unreasonable demands and blame you for not meeting their expectations. Perhaps they even wear you down with emotional tug of war. Yes, these are the people who invade your pleasant thoughts and dreams, causing you constant angst and frustration. Yet you put on a happy face and continue to serve them because, after all, they are compensating your efforts, right?

Wrong! The fee you negotiated with this demanding client did not include twenty-four hour availability. Nor did it include the unanticipated costs you must bear as a result of this client's constant interference with your other business activities. Most importantly, the attention you devote to this demanding client precludes you from seeking or accepting new business. A full plate leaves no room for new and exciting opportunities.

If you have an all-consuming client, you must decide whether or not to continue the business relationship. In making this determination, first assess the feasibility of training this client. Training refers to the process of setting parameters around the services you offer to the client. Inform the client, for instance, that you now will bill for extra phone calls. Alternatively, wait several days before returning this client's frantic phone calls. Effective training requires you to assume the mindset that your demanding client has no more right to your time than other paying clients. Remember that you are entitled to charge a fee for all of your work not just those efforts that your client elects to compensate.

Training may not succeed with all difficult clients. Instead of a surreptitious approach you may need to clearly and forcefully restructure the deal. This entails a simple phone call to the client during which you courteously demand increased compensation or stipulate alternative contractual terms. Be prepared, however, for your client to push back, because after all, your client believes he is entitled to your time.

When neither training nor restructuring the deal alleviates the problem, do not hesitate to terminate your relationship with this client. Nothing binds you as an business owner to take every client that knocks on your door. You also can discontinue untenable relationships, particularly when such relationships interfere with your obligations to other clients. Keep in mind that your ethical obligations as a fair business person extend to all clients. By allowing one client to interfere with your commitments to other clients, you may unwittingly neglect your promise to zealously advocate on behalf of all of your clients.

As you grow and develop your business, your professional needs will change too. Money may have been your initial priority, but perhaps quality of life has moved to the forefront. Do not permit all consuming clients to dictate your priorities by continuing a relationship with them. Allow yourself to examine how this client fits within your professional objectives. You may discover that this client no longer fits the new you. Embrace that revelation because you want to service clients who allow you to hold onto your personal and professional objectives rather than hold you back.

Not all business is good business. The hidden monetary and emotional costs of dealing with difficult clients may inhibit your professional growth and mask potential business opportunities. Re-examine your business goals and assess how negative clients fit in. If you find that an all consuming client drains more resources than he replenishes, it is ok to restructure or even terminate your agreement. Doing so will allow you to open yourself up to new clients and a new and improved you.