Avoid Clients From Hell With This Counterintuitive “Budget Rule”

I was helping one of my coaching students negotiate with a potential client recently. And I thought the feedback I gave was worth sharing with the public. Because it reveals a simple rule of thumb that can help you avoid working with clients from hell.

A few weeks ago, I was working with a student in my one-on-one freelance coaching program.

My student was trying to figure out how he could adjust his services to make a project worth his time — while also meeting the client’s budget.

And while the client’s budget wasn’t low…

It was still below what my student usually charges.

So he would have to scale back his services a lot in order to make the project worth his time.

And when my student asked for my input about the situation, this is the simple rule of thumb I shared…

“Never take a client if the top of their budget is the bottom of your project range…

Because when the client feels like they’re paying ‘top dollar’ they will have insanely high expectations. But when you’re working at the bottom of your fee structure, you won’t feel incentivized to go the extra mile.”

So the next time you find yourself trying to make it work with a client that barely has the budget for your services…

Don’t.

Instead, remember this rule of thumb and politely decline the opportunity.

Then do your best to refer them to someone else who can meet their needs.

That way, if the client’s budget goes up in the future, they will remember how you helped them achieve their goals — even though you weren’t getting paid.

Plus if your name comes up, they will also say good things about you to their peers in the industry.

And together, that will set you up to both get future work with this client and also referrals from other people they send your way.

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Now Let Me Show You How To Make Freelance Clients Come To You — Like Clockwork — Using A Simple, 30-Second Conversation…

All the details are inside my free business blueprint 30-Second Referrals.

With this free PDF, you’ll discover how to use a simple, 30-second conversation to get two referrals from every single client you sign. (I’ll even show you exactly what to say during this conversation with my word-for-word script on page 13.)

That way, you can make clients come to you like clockwork. And you can fill your pipeline with more new business than you can handle.

But there is a small catch…

30-Second Referrals is only available to members The Freelance Like A Pro email list.

So enter your best real email below to join us and claim your free copy of 30-Second Referrals now. (And you’ll get my members-only emails to help you run a more profitable and stress-free freelance business, too.)

Thanks for the freelancing guide and the emails that you've been sending out — the 30-second referral method is so stupidly simple, that it's genius!

Connor Inch, Freelance Copywriter