Revu,

I thought you'd enjoy this. I am now dealing with a client who keeps changing the deliverables drastically, so I can't actually get anything done or done with good quality for her. And the she complains about her failures and tries to blame them on me. I had to point out to her yesterday that most of the rejections she was getting were from proposals she created by herself before we started working together. If things don't improve, once I finish this current project with her, I'm going to tell her I'm unavailable for a while.

On top of that, I talked to a prospective client this morning who did not know what she wanted or needed, and when I tried to explain the process to her and how I could help her, she kept interrupting asking "Well, can't you just do this...X or Y...?" And I had to explain why I can't just do X or Y and why the best route would be Z. And then she wanted an expert level consultant (me) for $250 a month, to do around 15 hours a week of work. So that comes out to about $4 an hour. I ended the call telling her that I think she has a great organization but I just don't think it's going to be a good fit. And she was like, yeah, cause we just don't have the money...and I'm like, it's not just that. It's that you don't understand the work that needs to go into this to be successful, you aren't listening to me when I try to tell you the work that needs to be done to do this job, and that is indicative to me of what our working relationship will be like. I give people a sliding scale all the time if I feel like it. But if you're the client from hell you have two options: pay my marked up rate (some people do) or find someone else (they do that too, and I don't cry over it.).

I am a consultant because I refuse to work with people who cause me stress like that. Occasional conflicts are fine. That happens, but when it's an ongoing problem, you're very welcome to find another consultant who will deal with you. And while I say that, I'm sure someone's going to say "well, if you turn away people they'll just go to someone else." But the thing is, my job is to make them money. I have a proven track record of bringing in millions of dollars. So yeah, they can just go to someone else who will charge them less. BUT, I provide expert service that increases their chance of getting funds AND I am more knowledgeable and able to direct them through the process than the other guy. So go to someone else who will treat you worse and charge you less. You'll get what you pay for. And what you put in. Which is nothing.

Seesaw