When is it okay to say No to a client?
In this blog post I am talking about when is it okay for you to say “No” to a client who isn’t your ideal client. You would want to say no to wrong clients so that you can devote your time, energy, resources and talent to serve your ideal client.
Hey guys, how have been you doing? This post is for my fellow artists; may be you are a calligrapher and a watercolor artist like me or do any other creative work. You have created a personal style after lots of practice and work closely with clients now and serve them with your talent. I am sharing from my experience what a wrong client may look like and if that person is reaching out to you, you immediately know nah!! not my ideal client.
You must be thinking who am I to say who isn’t your ideal client. Exactly, I don’t know who is your ideal client and who you wanna work with. However, since I do lots of custom work and gets queries from clients on my DM and emails, I know that we often get tempted to say “yes” to those clients and work which we later realize that “oh crap! I could choose better people to work with”. We all have those moments right? But don’t worry girl or dude, I got you! Based on my experience, I have listed the characteristics of the client which you might want to avoid dealing with.
- When they question your pricing :
You honed your skill after hours of practice, learning from experts, making investments in courses to learn and become the best of yourself and you know your worth. You have a skill that no one can imitate, you are providing something unique, personal and honest. And there a client comes to you saying “oh! I love your work but this is not something I can afford, can you reduce it to like 70% down?” And the answer is “NO” . Believe me never lower your worth because you know what you deserve and if a client doesn’t see that value in your work better that client not purchase from you. Alternative is to educate your client and be very clear in what value you are providing through your work. Trust me, your ideal client would want the exact thing you are providing.
2. When they show you artwork of some other artist and want you to make that :
This is very common when a client isn’t sure of what they want in terms of their own vision and instead of working with you to get clear about the vision and trusting you, they show you an artwork from internet and ask you innocently ” Can you make something like this? “. Clear communication and trust are the key factors here to deal with this kinda client. Chances are they are unclear about what they want so it’s your job to sense that Is this client trusting me with their vision? or Are they in this bubble that oh this is the artwork from internet I provided and I will get something like this. You as an artist must have a unique personal style which no other person can copy. And same thing goes for the artwork that client pulled out from internet because it’s someone else’s work in their own style, chances are you won’t be able to create something that is close to it and this will create a mismatch between your vision and your client’s vision down the line when they would see “oh! that’s not something I expected!”. And you might end up feeling sad doubting your skills. But trust me! it’s not you, it’s the miscommunication and misalignment of vision in starting of the project.
3. When they are not a fan of your work :
You must be wondering then why did they even contact you. But trust me it happens, they might be thinking you are an artist and you can create anything they would want but it’s totally on you to say no to that client if their vision is something you are not an expert at. I am not saying you to not experiment. Feel free to say yes if you think you can and you may learn something new from it. However, if it is something completely not your style, don’t say yes just because you don’t want to lose a client. Trust me, instead you can devote your time in creating/doing something that would attract your ideal client.
4. You’re getting the gut feeling :
Like I always say trust your intuition. If you’re anything like me believing in vibes, magic, spirituality or you have that little voice telling you that this is not your person. Pay attention to that little voice and listen to your gut feeling. You would just know that you shouldn’t take this client maybe it’s the way they talked to you. It’s hard to explain but you’d know 🙂
5. When they aren’t your ideal client :
Lastly but most importantly, if a client is anything less than your ideal client they aren’t your client. Maybe when you are just starting and learning you may end up working with them no matter what but in long term when you’re clear about who your ideal client is you have no reason to say yes to anything less. If you aren’t sure who is your ideal client, start thinking now what kind of work you enjoy to do. What is it something you wanna get paid for, who would want to buy that kind of work and get into the nitty gritty of creating avatar of your ideal client. Show that work on your portfolio everywhere and attract your ideal client.
So, I hope you may take a point or two from this article and it has helped you in deciding when to say no to a client who isn’t your ideal client. Did you experience anything like this? Maybe you have dealt with a client which made you think later on why? Feel free to share what you have learnt and what point you can add to above list so that we aren’t wasting our precious time and resources with wrong people while right ones are waiting for us!
until next time! 🙂