I Fired a $100,000+ Web Development Client !!!

good evening my name is Chrissy Hughes or founder of a nerds WorldCom currently almost 11 o'clock on Saturday evening and I'm energized so I'm shooting my second video of the night today's video is going to be more so a storytime type video over the course of the last week I fired a client and I had a contract signed for over a hundred thousand dollars and I fired the client in today's video I'm going to tell you why this happened and why I would recommend you to sort of I'm not saying to pick and choose or to shy away from somewhat difficult clients because somewhat difficult clients will bring food to your fridge so we go to the meeting went well when we're on our way down in the elevator it's normally a three or four person team that goes with me and as I'm coming down the elevator we're looking around we sort of talk about it it's like how do you feel did we get it did we do you know where the words coming out properly and the answer are all amongst all of us it's like yeah when well we should do well so then we sit back and we wait we get called in a couple weeks later for a second meeting these meetings take time there's travel time there's you know we're not on the job for people are being paid hourly for maybe four hours to leave and come back and gas money and etc but that's part of the risk of web development and closing bigger deals so we go to the second and they tell us that they loved everything that we said and we're one of two companies left in the running to get this big contract so this time we got to meet with the vice president so we got more all in depth great conversation two-plus hours in the boardroom when I'm nodding my during a presentation in the clients nodding in the same rhythm as me a checkmark goes off in my mind that I got them on board they know that we're capable and were the best team for this project so as we're on our way to our cars we're celebrating we know we got this contract and lo and behold maybe two weeks later we get an email saying we've been chosen to work on this website project once again the price the price range was about a hundred and twenty thousand to one hundred and fifty thousand we hadn't worked out the exact price yet but they contacted us again they said prepare contract and we'll get started with a down payment we're wonderful we're having a little mini celebration in our stores that this is a big sale and a very big client with a long tradition of success and we're very happy to work with them now we get introduced to a new person we'll call them a digital marketing strategist he was brought on board in order to manage us in our work on this website knowing how important the website is to their business the current website stinks it's old it's not even mobile responsive so it's time to bring the website to the next level so they hired somebody I spoke to him he was very friendly at first and I'm not certain as to how knowledgeable he was he didn't really come off as somebody that has an experience or a background in web development or online sales or user experience etc very friendly until the contract was signed in email to us then the devil came out I'd say 2 to 3 hours once again four or five people at our location one of our physical locations now when we're there we didn't want to ask when the down payment was going to be made because there was other people there and we thought we thought a friendly email reminder I'd be better more professional than bringing him aside to ask him when the deposits gonna be made so we follow up with an email saying you know I'm work we're so excited we have the contract we're ready to get get going right away when can we expect the deposit because as stated in the contract and I stated in every meeting that we had prior we need the deposit the retainer in order to start building your website gentlemen would say Monday it will be here on Monday we're gonna courier to you okay Monday comes and goes we don't want to stress too much we wait till Thursday we contact again sorry just want to just want to confirm which address are you sending it to and has it been sent because they're piling up a long list of things they want us to work on but yet the money hasn't come through and lesson number one in web development is do not work without some sort of deposit or some retainer or something hold something we just kept giving the runaround or Wednesday we'll be ready Tuesday pick it up and then Thursday they'll say they'll hand-deliver it and about three weeks went by but during those three weeks were having more meetings we're really getting all in depth in conversation and I'm starting to become scared where is this money the company is clearly you know a hundred million dollar plus company but where's the money had they told me that they need 90 days to process a check I would have been okay with that I wouldn't have started the project but at least I wouldn't stress I would say let's start meeting in 90 days but the runaround then one evening at I guess twelve o'clock around twelve o'clock in the evening the same gentleman that was brought on to manage our project says I'm very disappointed in the Nerds world for the post contract signing behaviors just to put it very simply he's upset that we haven't started designing and building his website without a deposit it's not the way his this usually does business I don't really care about when your payments are made to stop the video here for a moment just to give you more context we were actually in communication with this previous web developer and they wanted it that way they wanted us to talk to the previous web developer and they actually came to us very openly and said good luck getting paid from these guys to end the story going back and forth at one o'clock in the morning on a Tuesday listening how disappointed this person was and him saying that he doesn't care when the payments are made I talked to my wife I said I know but we've worked very hard for this contract and it would look great on our portfolio and we can clearly do this we want to keep our sanity so my email reply was good evening team we appreciate the opportunity to meet and discuss the plans for your new website but based on recent email conversations with the person's name we respectfully decline offering our services on this or any future projects with their company names we wish you well on your search for a new web development team all the best Chris a Hugh's in the beginning stages of my web development career I would have nightmares I couldn't sleep at night I'd bring my work stress home to my family I'd be grumpy yell out my kids for no no good reason and I'll take the blame for that I was allowing the job in the money the big money to take over my my natural sense of guidance as to who I should work with and who I shouldn't I haven't chosen the path of becoming a web development company owner to be yelled at to be mistreated to be not paid for the work that we're doing and I'm very proud of myself that this is it's a very large contract I'm very proud that I chose the decision of mental health because this could have gotten a lot worse if this is all happened within the first week of signing a contract with no money down can you imagine over the course of the next six months of working with this person it doesn't look good and I've had developers that work for me quit because some projects are you know too stressful I've had project managers quit because the job is too stressful so the last thing I want to do for any money value in the world is create more stress in my work environment and my home environment so if you would have asked me five years ago I would have done anything that man would have said I would have said yes sir I'll do it sir I would have taken a risk I would have gone forward because I needed to I needed the money to survive but now that I'm a successful business owner and we're only growing more and more by the month and this is very difficult for me to do I'll tell you for two reasons I have crazy bills to pay my staff my wages my rents my insurance my electricity etc it's costly I need money to come in constantly to succeed and even stay open second I hate quitting I'm not a quitter I I don't I don't like being a quitter and I don't even like quitters so some people that watch this are gonna be like Chris you could have got through it and I probably could have gotten through it but do I want to bring my staff through this negative firestorm or do I want them to be happy to come to work hopefully you have a wonderful night add me Instagram nerds world or add my personal Instagram which is Chris underscore a underscore Hughes I always leave links in the description tell me your story have you had a nightmare client I'm sure you have did you decide to work with them or did you fire them I'm just curious I want to see in the bottom sort of pull as to how many people work through or how many people quit and lastly I don't want you to quit not every client is going to be perfect and you need to work with some difficult clients to succeed and pay your bills but there has to be that certain point where you say this is the clients gone too far and I don't want my head to explode that's it good night

Channel: A Nerd's World

Views: 5,763

Keywords: firing a client, know when to walk away from a client, web developers tips for beginners, i fired a client, wanting to fire a client

Id: 6alXXMCyCcU

Length: 10min 13sec (613 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 26 2019