Why Turning Away Clients Has Helped Me Succeed

It isn’t easy to turn away a lucrative job, but sometimes the emotional cost is too high to continue.

We met in his conference room. It was bigger than my entire office. He sat across from me at a table so polished I could see my reflection.

He’d been in business for two decades. Me? I’d started my own writing / P.R company only eight months earlier.

We talked about the project he was proposing. He wanted some public relations materials created and distributed, some press releases written to promote his new workshop. He told me his budget. I nodded my head. At that time, it was more money than I had earned from any project as a solopreneur.

The income would provide a few months of stability at a time when I was scrambling to pay my monthly expenses. Yet, I sweated my way through that meeting. Felt a flutter in my solar plexus. I didn’t like how he talked to his assistant. He interrupted me several times. Parented me rather than treated me professionally. I knew it wasn’t a good match. I signed the contract anyhow. And, I paid a price.

The toll on our physical and emotional health can also leave us feeling so depleted that we aren’t as efficient when working with our favorite clients.

And, managing the emotional demands of a bullying or belittling client can chip away at our creativity and innovation. Dealing with difficult people takes a lot of time and resources and that limits productivity. Ongoing stress also contributes to illnesses that lead to more missed days at work, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Or, at least days when we aren’t at our best.

Now after decades of managing my own operation, it comes down to this: I don’t want to be stressed out and unhappy. I created this job because I love the work…

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