The Question Should Be “Is the Client Failing Himself?”

Read this article from Smashing Magazine. Very good advice for any designer.

Yes, it’s very good advice on how to deal with your clients but it doesn’t take into account clients who don’t bother reading your emails, refuse to follow instructions no matter how well illustrated they are***, and takes advice from everyone else but you.

What about the client who wants to chat on the phone about every minute detail as they come up? How do you cover the time lost politely listening to their chatter about the weather or office gossip? (Theirs, not mine.  I am a solo freelancer…)

I have had a client lecture me on the proper way to handle a server move because his waiter at lunch advised him that he should set up “a mirror site with load balanced servers”. As if the client has that kind of money….

I have had a client book me repeatedly only to cancel at the last minute to reschedule for the next week because he wasn’t ready, only to fire me when I was unable to start his job the minute he was ready.

I have clients who keep asking me the same question even after I have repeatedly answered them because they think my answer doesn’t answer their question.

They make me feel like the most useless machine ever!

Of course, not all clients are this difficult. I would be selling cigarettes and ice creams cones in the mini-mart if they were. So how can I accommodate these high-maintenance know-it-all clients, make money and still be creative?

To misquote The Bard, “…therein lies the rub…”

Some days feel like this:

***If you are on a mac, download Skitch. It’s free and it’s a wonderful screen capture app.