A Life-Saving Tip for Entrepreneurs, Freelancers, Consultants, Artists and those who are doing Work that Matters!

Who gets your best work? Isn’t it important to choose wisely here?

Choose your clients!

Now if you are giving your best effort [and art] to constipated boss or a never appreciative client/customer, then you are in a vicious cycle where growth leads to grunge, frustration and worst, absence of joy.

One of THE most important choices I made early in my career was to work with clients who are clear, respectful, cheerful, competitive, patient and demanding for excellence.

And this choice was not easy to make. Choice by its very nature implies that you have to miss out on something. The choice of firing clients who are PITA — Pain in the Ass, is a career defining choice. Because if you don’t make this choice early and deliberately, you don’t get better at your art or craft. You simply get better at tolerating the crap and managing the ‘easily-avoidable’ stress.

So, here is my most sincere advice… give yourself the freedom to work with clients who deserve your best work.

Let’s understand it better. You can only give 100 percent of your energy and attention to your business and clients. When you waste it on clients who never get it or appreciate it, you are simply wasting a scarce resource [Attention and Energy].

So, here is a practical piece for you. This week assess your entire client base and fire a segment of it because that will free up your energy and time to focus on your best clients and future best clients.

Tough… right? But I promise you it will be one of the most powerful things you do to your business or your art.

Here is a toolkit. Ask these questions to yourself about each of your client:

• Am I regularly learning anything as an outcome of my work with this client or simply working because they wanted me to work?
• Am I adding value to the client that others can’t or am I competing on “cheaper is the better” race?
• Am I being paid well or the idea is to let the cash flow be sustainable?
• Am I being challenged and forced to grow or am I paid to do what I’ve been doing since ever?
• Am I getting the platform to introduce my new and best work on a regular basis, or they are just not interested?
• Am I getting worthy referrals from the client or nobody knows about my work with the client? [This is something like even the client’s key decision makers don’t know anything about the work you do]?
• Am I enjoying my work with the client or simply doing it for the sake of doing it?

If the answer to three or more questions is no, it’s time to abandon the client… immediately!

Remember, you can only reach out and offer your best when you are willing to “Let go”. Let go those who can do without you or they don’t care about you — before clients that matter let go of you.