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Dear Danielle: How Can I Refuse a Client without Getting Into Legal Trouble?

By Danielle Keister |
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In this episode of What Would Danielle Say?, LH from the United States writes to ask:

Dear Danielle:

I am in the process of starting my Administrative Consulting business and am at the point where I need to develop policies and procedures. I was reading your post of Oct. 23, 2012 (You Do NOT Have to Take the Good with the Bad) about being able to choose which clients you want to work with and having the right to refuse any client you choose. How exactly do you go about refusing a prospective client diplomatically and without setting yourself up for legal troubles? Have you ever had an experience like this? —LH

I asked LH to elaborate a bit more on what legal troubles she was referring to:

I’m thinking, for instance, if I were to say to a prospect that I didn’t think we were a good match for a business relationship because of the type of business they are in. I have not run into this problem and I’m just thinking generally and hypothetically because I know how crazy people can get over the least little thing. I wouldn’t want to end up being sued for “discrimination” when it would be a simple matter of conscience. I hope that as I continue to narrow my target market (I’m still in the startup phase) that problem would be eliminated. But I like to consider all the random “what ifs” just to make sure my bases are covered. I guess you can say I have the “prepare for the worst but expect the best” attitude.  I would love to know your thoughts on the issue.

So here are my thoughts on this:

Basically, it’s a non-issue and you’re borrowing needless worry. Don’t do that. ;)

Let me put your mind at ease. You are not obligated, legally or otherwise, to take on any client who is not a fit for you. As you stated very well yourself, it’s a matter of conscience and ethics.

You can’t do your best work or have a mutually happy-making relationship with any client who foundationally is not a great match for you. It’s for their benefit as much as yours that you decline clients who are not ideal.

You already understand this. I think you maybe just needed some confirmation and validation. Amirite? :)

So how this would normally play out is that you present lots of in-depth, educational content on your website so that your ideal clients are drawn to you, recognize themselves in your descriptions and see that you are just the right person who knows how to help them with their administrative needs, goals and challenges.

In this way, your website content also becomes part of your front-line pre-qualification system because it organically helps weed out those prospects who are not a fit at the same time it is attracting your ideal prospects, getting them interested and moving them to the next step.

Next, you have a consultation and part of your consultation process might entail that potential clients complete a form or preliminary questionnaire so you can gather information before you meet and further determine (again, as part of the whole pre-qualifying process) if this is a prospect who fits your ideal client profile.

If they do, that’s when you proceed to meet in a consultation where you ask your questions and talk, see if there’s good chemistry and get the info you need to find out whether this is someone you can help and want to work with or not.

If after going through all those steps, it turns out you don’t want to take that person on as a client, that you’re not a fit for whatever reason, you simply inform them that after considering all the information, you aren’t going to be the best person to meet their needs.

I also like what you also said about it being a matter of conscience. It’s diplomatic and it’s the truth so include that. It let’s them know you’re looking out for their best interests and that it’s nothing personal.

Be sure to provide them with the links to the ACA Directory and the Client Guide so that they can continue in their search. And if you happen to know of a specific colleague who might be a better fit, refer them to that person as well.

Perhaps you’ve discovered they were confused entirely about what you are and do and need another kind of professional entirely so be sure to give them that advice to  aid them in their search. (And if that is the case, it means you need to go back to your website and improve the message because it is clearly not doing it’s job of thoroughly and properly educating visitors about what you do, who you do it for and how you help them.)

Now, ideally, your prequalifying processes weed those folks out and determine whether someone is a good client candidate long before you expend your valuable time in consultation. That is the purpose and goal of having a system of intentional prequalification. This will be particularly important later in your business when you are more established and have less time to spare in what I call “practice” consultations. You will want to reserve your time and energy only for the most ideal of prospects so always be honing and improving upon your prequalifying systems.

This is another one of the places that having a very specific target market is going to make a dramatic difference in your success. When you know specifically the profession and the profile of the kind of client you want to work with, you can create much more extensive, compelling copy to attract them to you and move them through the process of becoming a client. And when you know who you ideal AND non ideal client is, it will be easier for you to recognize the red flags that start waving when you are dealing with a non ideal potential client so that you can head things off before you waste any time in consultation.

I have a couple of products that will help you tremendously in these areas.

I’ve explained the basic outline of consulting for retained clients, but there’s obviously much more to the entire process and a certain methodology to things that makes them effective. You need to know how to talk with prospects, how to set up your prequalifying systems, how to lead the conversation and what questions to ask that will best facilitate moving your ideal prospects to becoming monthly-paying retainer clients.

Breaking the Ice: Your Complete Step-by-Step System to Confidently Lead the Consultation Conversation and Convert Prospects to Retained Clients

Breaking the Ice: Your Complete, Step-by-Step System to Confidently Lead the Consultation Conversation and Convert Prospects to Retained Clients (GDE-03)

You also mention needing to establish policies and processes and I have a product for setting up a lean, mean, streamlined biz mo-chine that both enables you to take better care of clients AND gives you more time, freedom and flexibility for your own life. This guide gives you policies and processes and shares some standards to adopt for streamlining and simplifying your administration and operations:

Power Productivity & Biz Management for Administrative Consultants: The 14 Simple Systems that Will Breathe Freedom, Flexibility and LIFE Back into Your Business and Relationship with Clients

Power Productivity & Biz Management for Administrative Consultants: The 14 Simple Systems that Will Breathe Freedom, Flexibility and LIFE Back into Your Business and Relationship with Clients (GDE-41)

You Do Not Have to Take the “Good with the Bad”

By Danielle Keister |
1 Comment

I want to emphasize this:

You never, ever, ever have to settle for anything less than ideal in your business or “take the good with the bad.”

It saddens me to no end that anyone would have that defeatist, hostage mentality.

You will never live your best life believing that.

Business IS personal.

So I want you to know that you never have to do business with anyone you do not personally care for or who doesn’t treat you right.

You’re not a Walmart. And even they have the right to refuse service to anyone they choose.

You always, always have the right to choose who you work with, no matter what you do.

Your business success depends on you working with your most ideal clients. To work with anyone else is folly and will have you circling the drain faster than you can blink an eye.

And there’s this, too:

Be in integrity for your life and your needs as well as those who come to you.

You can not serve anyone well or honorably that you do not have good feelings toward and it is unethical to take their money.

Dear Danielle: How Do You Respond to RFPs?

By Danielle Keister |
0 Comments

Dear Danielle:

I really enjoy reading your blog. My question for you is, how do you recommend responding to an RFP (Request for Proposal)? As a member of other VA forums where RFPs are posted I struggle with knowing exactly how to submit an effective proposal. I did a quick search on your site and didn’t see anything directly mentioning RFPs or responding to them. I could be wrong. I would really appreciate your input. Thank you. —Anita Armas, CustomVA Administrative Services

Hi Anita :)

You must have missed my posts on Facebook here on this just recently, lol.

You didn’t find much on my blog about this because I don’t recommend people pay attention to RFPs whatsoever.

RFPs are the worst way to build your business. Your highest quality potential clients always come from your own pipelines and networking efforts. The lowest quality “leads” come from “job boards” and RFPs. (Hint: As an independent professional, you aren’t applying for “jobs.”)

Clients need to be brought on through your processes and hoops, not the other way around. If you allow them to lead those things, all you’re doing is auditioning to be the lowest priced bidder. Those are never good clients.

Don’t waste your time on RFPs. That’s not how you will build a high-earning, professional administrative support practice.

Here is one of my posts from 2010 for more of my thoughts on the topic.

You can also find more in the RFP category of my blog.

Dear Danielle: This Client Just Won’t Change

By Danielle Keister |
8 Comments

Dear Danielle:

I’m wondering if you have any ideas on how to work with clients who are resistant to the changes you want to implement. I have a great client (also my biggest client) who seems to want to stay on an hourly model where I feel like an employee (which we all know is not the ideal arrangement). I keep trying to implement systems to make billing more efficient so I don’t have to hunt down piecemeal information from him on a constant basis just to generate some client invoices for him. He just will not do it. Aside from that, we have a really great rapport so even though he’s getting to the stage where he will need to hire an in-office assistant, I’d like to keep our relationship for the bigger items that help him run his business efficiently. I just can’t seem to find a way to get him to see my point. —KI

Omigosh, I can so relate to your question. I’ve had clients like this myself. I think we all have at one time or another. The signs aren’t always obvious, no matter how well we conduct our consultations. Sometimes, it just takes working together a bit before this kind of issue becomes more clear.

This is an issue that really boils down to growth, fit and working with ideal/unideal clients.

If you will indulge me for moment, I’d like to muse just a bit.

When we’re new in business, we often take on any clients we can get.

As we grow in our business, we begin to learn and become more clear and conscious about what we like and what we don’t like, as well as who we like to work with (and work best with) and who is… uh… more challenging, shall we say, lol.

As a result, the clients we take on later in our business look very different from the clients we had back when we were just starting out.

Sometimes those early “starter” clients stay and grow right along with us through the years. This is always awesome!

And then there are some clients we outgrow for one reason or another. Sometimes it’s because we brought them on with unsustainable practices and expectations and as we improve upon our operations, policies, standards, boundaries and raise our rates to be in more alignment with our value and financial needs, those clients balk, resist and leave.

That’s perfectly fine. I like to call those “practice clients” and they really did help you learn more about yourself and your business and to grow. So bless them and let them be on their way (or, ahem, be proactive and politely show them the door) because when you hang on to clients who no longer fit, they take up double, even triple, the space and prevent your more ideal clients from coming into your life.

This client is sounding like someone who is no longer a fit, no longer ideal for you. I have had clients like this myself. They say they want and need the help and are open to your ideas, but then never want to implement any of them or refuse to make any necessary changes. This, of course, makes things more difficult and time-consuming (not to mention, frustrating!) when they abjectively refuse to use better or even proper technology tools or make shifts in how they do things.

As a consequence, they also just never seem to grow or evolve. It’s extremely difficult to be or stay energized with clients like that. They just keep doing the same old things and getting the same old results.

If you continue working with that kind of client, it really just becomes an exercise in treading water, going through the motions. You lose all motivation for looking out for improvements or contributing ideas for their business because they have shown that they just aren’t interested. Why should you keep wasting your time and energy, right? It’s de-energizing and demoralizing and you get no joy or satisfaction when you are deprived of being able to contribute in these ways.

It’s always a delicate dance we have with clients. We want to care and help our clients do amazing things or make amazing strides. We’re just wired like this. But you can’t care more about their business than they do themselves. We can offer ideas and make suggestions, but ultimately, it’s the client’s business, not ours, and they are the ones who get to decide what they want to do and what they don’t. If someone is just not interested in changing how they do things, there isn’t anything you can do to change their mind. And it’s just not worth the aggravation trying, trust me.

And, to be clear, these aren’t awful people. Like you say, you two have a great rapport. It’s entirely possible to have a client with a great personality and with whom you get along great, beyond their stubborn inability to make improvements or do anything differently. I’ve had clients like that as well. What we didn’t have was a business relationship that energized me and made it a joy to work with them. It’s not all about the money, as we all know.

This is why it’s always a good idea to choose clients carefully through our consultation process and to let clients go if/when they are no longer a fit.

So, you have to let go of the idea that you are going to change this client. It just isn’t going to happen. And you need to decide if you are okay with that and working in your current “comfortably numb” going-through-the-motions kind of way. If it wasn’t bugging you, though, my guess is you wouldn’t be writing this question to me. My guess is you also need or are afraid of losing the income, which is why you haven’t nicely let this client go yet.

It’s all well and good to tell people to let go of clients who are no longer a fit. And that’s absolutely my best advice. But I know that it’s easier said than done. You have bills to pay and mouths to feed, after all. I get that. So here’s a practical way to grow toward that conclusion if that’s the direction you want to take.

  1. Continue to formally document and get conscious about your standards, policies, boundaries and ideal/unideal clients. Put those things in writing. Keep honing and adding to them (this will be ongoing throughout the entire life of your business). AND be sure to INFORM clients what those rules, boundaries, policies and procedures are. This is where your New Client Welcome Guide comes in.
  2. As you grow, you can implement those new standards and policies incrementally. Send out a blanket email to all your clients, informing clients as soon a possible about any change. People do much better with change when they are kept informed. But do not overly explain or have belabored personal conversations with each individual client. Simply inform and let them know you look forward to continuing to work and grow together. The choice is theirs beyond that. When you take out the invitation to conversation, clients actually react better to these changes and accept them as a matter of course. It’s when we think we need to overly explain things that they (perhaps unconsciously) get the idea that your changes are open for debate.
  3. Whenever you up your game, elevate standards and make changes, expect that you will lose some clients. You will never grow if you stay stuck doing things or working with people who don’t energize you. What may surprise you is that many of your clients will congratulate you and wonder why you hadn’t done this sooner. ;)
  4. When it comes to things like pricing, give clients plenty of notice (30 to 60 days days minimum). This gives you time to gauge which clients might be considering leaving, and put additional effort in bringing on new clients to replace any outgoing ones. And, of course, bring on all new clients at your new fee levels, standards and policies.
  5. Fear-based decision making is never a good idea or good advice. But that doesn’t make it any less of a reality. So in a worst case scenario, when you absolutely can’t risk losing the income and you have the room, there is always the option to maintain the status quo with current clients and instead put all your focus and energy into bringing on new, ideal clients at your new standards and rates. This will put you in more of a position of financial choice. Then, for each new client you bring on, let go of an unideal client. Do this one by one until you have replaced your roster with more ideal, better-fitting clients.
  6. I also suggest you purchase my Value-Based Pricing & Packaging Toolkit. In the videos and the workbook, I show you how to talk about value-based fees and what to point out to clients so they see and understand the benefits to them of working this way.

And moving forward:

  • Stop calling yourself an assistant. Another of the benefits I’ve found since using the term Administrative Consultant is that there’s more of an immediate respect, openness and even an expectation for my ideas and directions. As a consultant, people inherently understand that you have expertise and therefore expect that your suggestions are valuable contributions to make their business better. It’s a completely different framing and context they have as opposed to how they view you when you call yourself an assistant. And as a business owner, you aren’t an assistant anyway. ;)
  • Along with being a business owner and not an assistant, understand that there are some things in your business that you get to tell clients. You can’t be in business to use old, ineffective, archaic methods and technology or do things in the most difficult, time-consuming, inefficient and complicated ways. That’s counter-productive to your business and the other clients you serve. So remember, that you always get to inform clients that, no, that’s not how you do things in your business or for clients. There are going to be some tools or ways of doing things that aren’t negotiable, that you get to direct. For example, does a client get to walk into a print shop and tell them what tools they are to use, how to do the work or what information they will supply? Of course not. Every business, including yours, has ways of doing things, has certain information they need from clients, certain current methods, systems and technology they use to be most productive, efficient and effective and so they can do their best work and achieve the best results. You can’t start working in the dark ages just because one client can’t adapt. Clients can either get on-board with progress or find someone else. ;)

Remember, too, that your growth in business is always a good thing for clients because ultimately it helps you help them better. And your positive growth in your standards, policies, systemization, etc., is actually a model and encouragement for those clients who are stuck themselves in their businesses.

Dear Danielle: “God’s Work” is Not Getting Me Paid

By Danielle Keister |
2 Comments

Dear Danielle,

I’ve been struggling really hard with determining what target market I would like to cater to with my administrative consulting business. I have gone back and forth about it for awhile now. It is so tempting to take work where you can get it, but I know that is not the correct way to go about building a business. My industry experience has been in working with nonprofits, but for business purposes I would like to target start-up nonprofits because I know how much it takes to get a nonprofit off the ground and I can see how I can easily be retained in this case as well. My concern is that I won’t be fairly compensated for my work. I worked with a ministry and I didn’t get paid a dime because sometimes with entities like this, you get caught up in doing “God’s work.” Can you please give me some guidance with this issue? I would really appreciate it. —JS

Thanks so much for submitting your question. I would love to help give you some guidance on this.

First, I want you to download my free guide, Get Those Clients Now!  When it comes to getting clients more quickly and easily, it’s all about the target market. This guide will help you get more clarity around that.

It’s great that you have an idea of who you want to target. Now, you just want to do your homework about viability. Nonprofits can be tricky. While it sounds like you’ve got a great background perfectly suited to support them, you’d just want to make sure you are targeting a niche that actually has money. Because if they can’t afford professional fees, all your wonderfulness isn’t going to help you if they simply can’t pay. I’m not sure how financially secure and solvent start-up nonprofits will be, but that, of course, will be your homework to research and find out.

That said, if you can determine there’s a viable niche in there for you, your marketing message can make all the difference in the world. If you can help them understand how your strategic administrative support will actually help them operate more cost effectively and profitably, and how it will help them accomplish a whole heck of a lot more than they could otherwise, that’s half the battle.

So download the guide; it’ll help you go about that whole process.

Now, may I give you just a little bit of tough love? Please know it’s said with hugs and a heartfelt desire to help you turn things around.

You mention being concerned about not being fairly compensated. Maybe it was just poor phrasing on the fly, but the way it was worded made me wonder if you were maybe taking too passive a role in leading your own business.

Because, it’s not up to clients whether you are “fairly compensated.” YOU are the one who decides what you will charge, how you will be paid and when you will be paid. Your job is simply to inform clients how it all works. If they had gone through a proper consultation process and signed a contract, how did they not know they were a client and were supposed to be paying for your services?

So, if clients were manipulating you into working for free, you want to realize that they didn’t do that to you; you allowed that to happen.

To change that, what you want to do is get more intentional about your business and consultation processes as well as who you take on as clients. Be sure to clearly separate business from any volunteer work you are doing. So, for example, if you had gone through your normal consultation process with this ministry, they should have been clearly informed that you charge a fee for your work, and how and when and what you will be paid for that work. If there was any misunderstanding or ambiguity there, that’s a sign that you need to improve those processes and communications in your business. None of that happens without your passive or active consent. You see?

So if we need to tighten up and intentionalize (my made-up word, lol) your consultation process, I highly recommend you check out my client consultation process guide.

I hope that helps! Let me know in the comments if things improve for you with this advice moving forward. :)

Dear Danielle: How Do I Get Clients?

By Danielle Keister |
13 Comments

Dear Danielle:

Brief question–how do you get clients? I know this is on every Administrative Consultant’s mind in America whom is starting out. I know that this kind of business is referral-based, but my God! I know that you can’t just jump up and think you are going to get rich from this (not my intentions). However, it’s one person I did some donated hours for, I have tried working with another client and lowered my prices to accommodate her. Still a no-go on this one. If I would have said it was free for the service, she would have been all over it. I think if I had at least two clients, I would feel like my business is progressing forward. But not having anyone gets discouraging at times and you wonder if it’s worth it if your business is solely based off referrals, you know? –ST

(FYI: This “Ask Danielle” question was originally posted on my old blog back in March 2010.)

Well, first, I had to chuckle because there’s nothing brief about the question, “How do you get clients?” LOL. Not laughing at you, but it’s sort of like asking, “How do we achieve world peace?” It’s a BIG, complicated question with no quick, simple, pat answer.  It’s difficult to start a business, as you recognize. For a large number of people, they are not going to get clients right away. While they’re waiting, there’s a lot of learning and studying they can be doing to better understand marketing and client psychology. Here are a few thoughts to help you get started in the right direction…

1. Stop donating hours. When you give away your value (the very product you are in business to earn your living from), you devalue it in the eyes of clients. Worse, all giving stuff away for free does is attract freebie-seekers. These are not your clients. They will be gone as soon as you take the free buffet away. If they can’t afford professional services, they either shouldn’t be in business, or they should at least not expect you to subsidize their business (to your own detriment) until they can. These are very selfish, self-centered thinking people. You have your own bills to pay and people to take care of. You can’t put your time and energy into those folks. You’ve got to market to people who can already afford you and who don’t expect you to be footing the bill for their business. If you keep giving it away for free, you’re just going to keep getting more of the same. “Why pay for the cow when you can get the milk for free?” applies here. If you’re dishing it out, they’re gonna take it. You are attracting what you are giving. So stop the gravy train and get serious about serious clients.

2. I’m not sure why you think this, but this is not strictly a referral-based business. A business can become mostly referral-based once they’ve established their business, had a chance to get their foot in the networking door, and have clients and others who happily recommend them. If you’re new, you don’t have that right off the bat. But there are things you can do and ways you can network that will better draw/attract prospective clients to you. What will help here is having a target market to focus your message on and give you direction on where to find those folks you wish to be talking with and expend your efforts and energy there (which are limited and need to be conserved for the highest and best possible use). Two of the most important criteria in deciding on a target market are that 1) it must be one where the people in it generally are earning enough money that they can afford professional services, and 2) there are enough of them that it’s easy enough to figure out where they are (offline and off) and then find ways to interact with them, come up in their search terms and be found by them.

3. Never, ever bargain with or negotiate your fee. All you are doing is teaching clients to devalue you and your support. You start doing that and they forever after expect freebies and discounts and that everything is up for negotiation. You don’t even have to tell me what you’re charging. I can pretty much guarantee that you are undercharging–all these issues you describe are always symptomatic of rates that are way too low. They cater to and attract the wrong crowd. On top of that, I’m willing to bet the conversation on your site is all about cost and discounts and freebies and savings and how much cheaper and more affordable than an employee you are, yada yada yada… am I right? That’s exactly the problem. I would tell you to raise your fee. You likely will be ALL kinds of uncomfortable doing that. And while you’re doing that, you also will need to learn how to market differently and change your message. But when you do those things, you will begin to attract a clientele with an entirely different mindset and more professional business sense. Those folks are looking for skill and quality and competence, not handouts. You simply can’t waste your time and energy–and money, because that’s what it boils down to–on folks who can’t afford you and would have you harm yourself financially in order to help them.

4. Adding onto the idea of changing your message, you’ve got to frame what you have to offer in respectful ways. You’ve got to hold what you do in high esteem and talk about it in respectful terms. If you use words like “generalist” and “mundane” and “affordable” and the like, you are lowering the perceived value of what you have to offer. You are teaching prospects to look down upon your work and view it as lowly, and thus, not worthy of professional fees. And the industry as a whole has GOT to get off the cost conversation and all the employee comparisons. If you have any of that stuff on your site, take it off immediately. You are creating and attracting the very mindsets you are complaining about now. If everything you put on your website is about how cheap you are, how much they can save, how much more affordable you are than employees, save this, get a discount on that, guess what you are focusing people on? MONEY. You can’t make your marketing message about that–unless you want to continue to attract nothing but people who are looking for savings and discounts and bargains and cheap and affordable. Stop talking about costs whatsoever. That’s the last thing you should be talking about. And if you don’t have anything else to talk about with regard to what you do for your clients and your value to them (the results you help them achieve), then you’ve got a lot more work to do about understanding what you are and what you do.

Marketing and attracting clients is an area of ongoing learning and study. It’s not anything that can be answered quickly or simply in a mere blogpost, but I hope this at least gets your wheels turning. The very best way I can help you is to recommend that you get my e-book, “Articulating Your Value: How to Craft Your Own Unique Marketing Message to Get More Clients, Make More Money and Stand Apart from the Crowd.” This is a self-study guide that will help you determine your target market, define an ideal client profile, differentiate yourself with your own unique marketing message and value proposition and package up that info in much more attractive, marketable ways.

Crappy Clients Will Drag You Down

By Danielle Keister |
8 Comments

I came across something recently that had me reflecting on some of the bad clients I took on in my early days of business. I was reminded that it wasn’t until I let go of all unideal and (let’s be frank) crappy clients that I really started making serious money and having more joy and happiness in my business.

There are so many ways that bad/unideal clients drag you and your business down. They create negative energy. They demoralize you and lower your professional self-esteem. They zap your energy. They deprive your ideal clients of your quality time and attention. They keep you from making more money. Oh, we’d be here for days if I tried to list everything, lol!

This is a huge problem in our industry. There’s a sort of subtext that instills and encourages the harmful mentality that “you had better be grateful for whatever clients you can get.” And it’s precisely because of this thinking that so many in our industry are just struggling to get by.

You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge, as Dr. Phil likes to say. And so we have to have the conversation in order to learn from it and get to a better place.

When we’re new in business, we often aren’t conscious about the clients we take on (“any business is good business; I need the money!”), and even if we are somewhat aware, it can be a bit of a learning curve to start getting clear about what we want and who we prefer to work with. Things aren’t always clear. We don’t always recognize the pitfalls or see the consequences. And often, we feel like (because we are new), maybe it’s something we are doing that is the problem.

If I’d had an industry to turn to back then (I didn’t discover the industry until several years after I’d already been in business), I’m sure I would have gotten a lot clearer and conscious about this MUCH sooner.

Oh my gosh, I remember the client/ex-friend that I had to sue in order to get the thousands of dollars she owed me.

I remember the client who was really nice, but thought the world revolved around her and constantly kept me waiting when I had an onsite appointment with her (although looking back, I’m not sure why I thought there was anything “nice” about that).

I remember a few bookkeeping clients who it saddened and disappointed me to learn were pilfering employee funds (e.g., tax monies and child support withholdings) to buy themselves expensive toys while stealing from their employees and not paying the tax man.

And yet I would still bend over backward trying to be helpful and make a fit out of them. For some reason I had the idea that the “client is always right” and superior customer service was the ultimate responsibility I had as a business owner, which I prided myself on. Who cares if they walk all over you! If someone had just simply said to me, “You know what, bad clients are bad clients. You are not a failure if you kick them to the curb. Lose the losers!” I could have saved myself SO much time and heartache.

Of course, as with everything, there’s always a positive side to every bad experience. From these bad experiences, it brought about my thinking and consciousness about the kind of clients with whom I truly wanted to work.

And I learned many tough, expensive, but ultimately invaluable, business lessons. For example, my friend/client I had to sue to get what she owed me? Well, my part in that was that I was being a pushover and teaching her to disrespect me and take me for granted by giving her “friend” discounts and letting her get into debt with me for my services. You can bet I don’t do that anymore.

I learned to insist that clients respect my time and to let go of anyone who consistently missed appointments or otherwise wasted my time. Once I quit doing onsite visits, I had more time and energy for “virtual” clients and made more money because of it.

And I learned to immediately let go of any client the minute I found them lacking in character, integrity or honesty. (Spending child support payments withheld from employee paychecks is one of the most despicable acts I can think of.) Trust your gut. Don’t let your desire to give benefit of the doubt cloud your better judgment. It’s not a “mistake,” isolated incident or lapse in judgment as they often try to make you think (especially after the “mistake” has been pointed out to them several times). People like that just don’t change their stripes. If they’ll do it to someone else, they’ll do it to you; it’s only a matter of time. It’s best to get them out of your life (the sooner, the better) and leave them for the universe to deal with.

Once I started becoming more aware and conscious about these things is when my business and happiness really started taking off. Nowadays I work with people who value and respect what I do for them. They’re grateful and appreciative. They’re smart and funny. We have great conversations and fun working together. And they care about me as a person as much as I care about them.

And so I say now for those of you who are newer in business, you absolutely have the permission, right and even obligation to lose the losers! You and your well-being are no less important than that of your clients. In fact, your success and attentive client care DEPEND upon your happiness. It’s simply impossible to have space for your most ideal clients if you are keeping it occupied with poorly fitting, unhappy-making ones.

Be more discerning about the clients you take on. Have a consultation process. Start an ideal AND UN-ideal client profile that you continue to hone and update throughout the life of your business. Begin formally documenting your standards and boundaries now, if you haven’t yet, and honor them, always. Read your UN-ideal client profile anytime you are tempted to ignore them. Never take on any clients without any regard or due diligence (that’s your consultation process). I promise, your business will become better and more profitable and prosperous for it!

Is It Any Wonder Clients Balk at Your Fees?

By Danielle Keister |
4 Comments

I hear from people all the time complaining about the fact that they seem to ever hear from prospects who balk at their fees and only want to pay $10-15 an hour.

If you identify with that, I gotta be honest with you. Almost every bit of this difficulty stems from what YOU are talking about with them on your website and in your marketing message.

There will always be cheapskates in the world who want to devalue other people and get work for free.

But that leaves the rest of the prospective client market and they are absolutely influenced by how you “sell” yourself.

YOU control what they are focused on.

And let me tell ya, what many of you are focusing them on right now is creating the very mindsets you are frustrated with and seek to discourage.

Go to just about any Virtual Assistant website and all you see people talking is how affordable they are, how they are cheaper than an employee, how much clients can save, discounts on this, free hours on that… etc., etc.

The only thing you are talking about is money and saving. It’s no wonder this is all they see and hear then:

If you want to attract well-paying clients—clients who expect to pay professional level fees and value the work—you have got to stop talking about money in your marketing message. Period.

You are attracting all the wrong prospects and training them to devalue you. You are telling them that the only thing that is important to them and you is how much you cost.

Let me say that another way… if you all you are talking about is money, all you will attract is money-conscious clients.

Do you get that?

If your marketing conversation is all about how how cheap, affordable and “competitively-priced” you are, how much they will save and giving discounts left and right, you are going to keep getting clients who are only looking for cheap. They won’t see or hear anything else.

Surely, you actually have something of value to offer… don’t you?

So talk about THAT!

How does your work improve their business and life? How does it help them move forward? What problems does it solve? How might their outlook and clarity and stress and mood be improved with your help?

Think of all the ways your work and skill and knowledge contributes to making your clients’ businesses better, and focus on those things. The clients you attract with that message will be like night and day. Promise.

And if you want to learn how to stop selling hours and price and package your support based on value and expertise instead, be sure to check out my Value-Based Pricing & Packaging Toolkit.

Dear Danielle: I’ve Lost All Boundaries—Is This Relationship Salvageable?

By Danielle Keister |
13 Comments

Dear Danielle:

I have a client who signed a three month retainer which will end next month. The client is a publicist in Los Angeles. Working with this individual has become a job. I work 50 hours a week. The reason being that I have become an assistant vs. admin support. I like this person and it is clear that she needs help. My challenge is how to steer this so that she’s working within my business model and not the other way around. I’m not making nearly what I should be. I took less to build the relationship. Is there a way to bring this around or should I just thank her for the wonderful experience (while frustrating at times, I’ve learned a lot) and move on? —TK

This is SUCH a great question. It’s a common pitfall for so many Administrative Consultants. I’m sorry you are going through this, but on the positive side of things, as you recognize, it’s a really valuable learning experience.

There are so many business concepts this touches on so I’m just going to enumerate things to consider. You may have figured some of this out having gone through this now so a lot of it may  just be a validation that you’re getting on the right track from this point forward.

1. Never bargain with your fees. You never want to make bargains with the very thing that earns your living. All you do then is teach clients to devalue the work and the relationship, and give them the idea that everything is up for negotiation.

And really, it amounts to bribery. It’s saying, “I am not worth what I’m charging so I need to bribe you with discounts and freebies in order to get you to work with me.”

That’s a horrible, powerless way to start a relationship and attracts all the worst kinds of clients. Discounting is such a common practice in our industry, but you need to be clear:  just because we see it a lot, doesn’t mean it’s working. ;) There are a whole lotta people out there who are NOT making any money and whose businesses are going nowhere due to instititutionalized lack of professional self-esteem and putting themselves on sale.

If what you have to offer is valuable and worthwhile, it’s worth charging fully for right from the get-go. There will be more mutual respect, and your business and relationships will grow more successfully and healthily from there. There are other–better–ways to start new client relationships and make it easier for them to say yes that don’t entail discounting or otherwise bargaining with your fees.

2. Never take on anchor clients. An anchor client is one who ends up monopolizing all your time and energy. They are called “anchor” clients because they weigh your business down and keep it from going (and growing) anywhere.

It doesn’t help that we’ve got virtual assistant training programs telling folks that these kinds of clients who hire them for 40, 60 or more hours a month are the bee’s knees. If you are someone who is only doing this work as a side income and more of a hobby, then that’s fine and dandy. But it absolutely does not work at all for those who are trying to build a real business that earns a real, full-time income (and more!) that they can actually live on.

That’s because working with those kind of clients doesn’t leave you the room or energy to work with others and grow your business. I can’t tell you how many people in our industry I personally know who are struggling because they are working like full-time assistants to their clients. They aren’t making enough money to live on and they barely have any time to think or do anything else.  And they’re definitely not living the freedom and choice-filled life of the self-employed they dreamed of when they first started. If you have read my blog for long, you’ll frequently see me referring to this as “operating and working with clients in ways that aren’t sustainable and don’t give your business room to grow.”

A good rule of thumb is that no one client should make up more than 20% of your business. If you are working with one client for 40-50 hours a week, you’ve got yourself an anchor client who is probably making up 75% or more of your entire business.

You aren’t making the kind of money you want and need, yet you haven’t given yourself room to work with anyone else.

And what happens if that client says bye-bye? There goes almost (if not all) of your entire income. On top of things, you’ve been so busy working with this one client, you haven’t had any time to market your business to keep those prospective client pipelines open. Not that you had any room to take on new clients anyway.

Quite the dilemma and not a good place to be, right? So this is what you do…

3. Recognize when what a client really needs IS an employee. As you’ve stated, this has become a job and it’s time to let this client know that what she really needs is an employee, one who can be solely dedicated to that level of workload.

You want to always remember (and tell this to clients, too) that an Administrative Consultant is an alternative to employees, not a substitute or replacement for them. They aren’t the same thing at all in any way, shape or form. There is naturally going to be a significant difference in the way and when you work together as well as what work you take on. There are going to be many clients and many workloads this simply isn’t a fit for–and isn’t supposed to be.

There are a lot of people out there who just aren’t going to understand this (sometimes folks have to be a little further along in their business for certain things to make sense), but I gotta say it anyway—when a client starts needing you for more than 20-30 hours a month, what they really need is an employee.

Because once you start getting into those kind of hours for one client, the work starts to require more constant, daily monitoring and it overwhelms everything else. And that is a condition that will not only lead to burn-out and keep you chained to your desk every day, more importantly it will limit your ability to work with others and deprive you of the “space” you need to move around easily in the work. Daily on-demand work causes crowding which also leads to poor performance and inconsistent delivery.

The more profitable, sustainable model that also allows you to keep the higher value, one-on-one, true partnering relationship is to work with several retained clients whose individual workloads don’t exceed 20-30 hours a month. It’s a much easier business to manage, it gives you space and leaves room to grow and offer additional services and project work. In that model (and as long as you are also charging properly), it only takes a handful of clients to really do well financially, and because you have “space,” you can supplement that line of business in many different ways.

4. YOU need to set the parameters and the definitions. This is where I’m always saying that being an administrative expert and being an assistant are not one and the same thing. And if you’re a business owner, you aren’t anyone’s assistant.

What I want those two statements to do is help people get conscious and intentionally define their role. You can be an administrative expert without having to be anyone’s assistant. Problem is most of the information you get in the VA industry today is telling people that they have to be assistants. And that’s not a new paradigm whatsoever. It’s just a different name for the same thing:  employee.

When you get clear about that, you understand that your value isn’t in being and doing everything for that client. You CAN focus on just the administrative support in your clients’ businesses without being an assistant and instead being an administrative expert. If you want to also be an assistant, that’s up to you, but like I say, they aren’t one and the same thing. You get to choose, but understand this—your value isn’t dependent upon also being an assistant. It’s all in how YOU define the work and your role in your business.

Likewise,  you need to define what administrative support is. And the reason this is important is because so many people are giving everything away under the administrative support umbrella. So you want to define what kind of work is administrative support and what work logically falls into other categories of business. This will not only help you define parameters, making things more manageable and leaving you room to grow with that client as well as others, but you also create additional revenue sources by charging separately for those things that don’t fall under the administrative support umbrella.

Obviously, I can’t say one way or the other if this is a salvageable relationship. I can tell you, though, that once you’ve spoiled a client and allowed them to have expectations that you can’t sustain and that keep your business from growing, it’s often really difficult to wean them off those things. As you grow and your standards change and improve, always expect that you may lose some clients. It’s just natural that you will outgrow some.

If it’s a relationship you’d like to try to keep, all you can do is be open, honest and direct about the changes that must take place in your business in order for it to grow, and let the client know that you hope she will come with you. Don’t be invested in the outcome beyond that. If she chooses to come with you and accept the adjustments you need to make, great! You can now move forward on more mutually beneficial footing. If not, it just leaves you room for more ideal clients to come into your business.

Responding to RFPs

By Danielle Keister |
0 Comments

Responding to RFPs is not the best way to get clients because it has you jumping through their hoops and “auditioning” rather than the other way around.

Responding to RFPs will have you expending exorbitant amounts of time and energy trying to land nickel and dime clients (who typically are really only looking for the cheapest bidder anyway) with no guarantee that you’ll even be chosen.

There are better ways, my friends!

Truly, the best way to get clients is to create your own pipelines  so that not only do you keep a steady flow of prospects coming to you (instead of you chasing after them), but also more ideal, better qualified prospects. This will also get them into your processes, instead of the other way around.

And you do that by focusing on a very specific target market.

Once you have that direction and know where you are setting your sights and energies on, it’s vastly easier to learn all you can about that market and understand it inside and out. You can then  figure out where those folks hang out online and off so that you can get in front them and interact together. When you know who you are talking to, you can identify their problems and obstacles more quickly and present your solutions to them in language they understand best.

Get involved in their associations. Join their online and in-person networking groups. Read their publications. Go to their functions. Write white papers for them. Gear your newsletter toward their interests. Offer to write a guest column in their industry publications. Look for opportunities to speak in front of their groups. The list goes on and on.

If you want off the hamster wheel, this is the very best, most fruitful path to getting ideal, retained clients and get them far more quickly and easily.

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