Treasa Edmond: 0:00

Welcome back to Boss Responses. I've loved talking to every one of my guest co-hosts for Boss Responses, but recording the episodes for this week was a truly special experience. If you've ever had the opportunity to talk with Sarah Greesonbach, you'll understand that her special blend of humor, knowledge and off-the-wall fun makes every conversation one to remember. I hope you get to experience a little bit of that this week, because I had a blast recording these. Sarah is the founder of B2B Content Studio and an expert in crafting high impact marketing content for top tier brands. She started her career as a ghostwriter for Fortune 100 companies and has spent the last decade helping B2B companies uncover their unique value and turn it into content that connects, which is a phrase I use as well, so I love that commonality that we have.

Treasa Edmond: 0:51

For today's episode. We're going to discuss the risks of taking on a long-term client that has the potential to completely dominate your schedule, and we both share a few stories and lessons that we've learned along the way. Let's get into it. If you're a freelancer, business owner or anyone who deals with clients, you're in the right place. I'm your host, Treasa Edmond. I've been dealing with clients and running my business for nearly two decades and in that time I've dealt with my share of doubt, imposter syndrome and not knowing what to say when a client asks a question. I wasn't ready for. I created this podcast to empower you with the boss responses you need to grow your business. Each week, my guest co-host and I will bring you five episodes packed with practical insights. Monday through Thursday, we answer your questions, and Fridays we dive deep to explore how our co-hosts embrace their role as the boss of their business. Welcome to Boss Responses, sarah. Thank you for being here with us this week. I really appreciate it.

Treasa Edmond: 1:58

Thank you for having me All right. So today you're answering our first question, and it is from Claire. All right. So today you're answering our first question, and it is from Claire. Claire says I've freelanced as a web developer for three years, mainly working on short term projects. Recently, a tech startup reached out about a year long contract to overhaul their entire website infrastructure Go Claire. The fee is excellent and would provide pretty stable income. The problem is it would require about 80% of my client hours. I've heard horror stories of freelancers losing their main client and then struggling to rebuild their business. How can I evaluate whether this client is worth the risk? What do you think, sarah?

Sarah Greenback: 2:37

I promise we will actually answer the question, but first I just have to tell Claire to not worry about it, because startups don't really finish the things that they have to do, especially if it takes a year. Yeah, Not only because that startup is going to change its positioning at least three times over the course of the year, but at least half the marketing team is going to leave and be replaced at that time as well.

Treasa Edmond: 3:10

So just as a first take, yeah, I made a note the hazards of startups, so we're on the same page there.

Sarah Greenback: 3:17

Yeah, and so I'd say, though, if we're, you know, let's assume everything is just fantastic and you really want to go for this, I think, when it comes to evaluating the risk, it is half communicating with that client and creating either a contract or a timeline that gives you lots of outs. So, setting it up quarterly, setting it up like a one month plan, two month plan, that kind of thing, so you can really easily exit if they need to or you need to. And then the horror story is that the freelancer it's not that they lost their main client, it's that they stopped prospecting and then, when their main client stopped, they didn't have anything. So what is on your to-do list is to keep prospecting throughout that relationship and make sure that you can move right into some other projects once it's over.

Treasa Edmond: 4:04

Yeah, yeah, that's a big thing. And do you know what I've been burned in this situation? The bad kind of burns, the horror story that Claire has heard? Is there a good burn? Yes, there is. We'll have to talk about that later. Yeah, I'll come back to that client who was about 80% of my client hours and I had to let them go because they were incredibly toxic and it was one of those things that I put off and I put off and I put off and then I couldn't put it off anymore, so I had to let them go and all of a sudden nothing. So I had to scramble to fill in those hours and luckily I have a really good referral network to where. That was fairly easy to do and I never stopped marketing. That's my rule ever, ever, ever, always. Market, always, keep that client funnel coming in and then do what you need to do. If you have to scramble, you're ready, you're ready, that's all it is.

Sarah Greenback: 5:09

Yeah, and I think this hints a bit at what we'll talk about in a couple of days. But one thing people don't realize is that to continue marketing, sometimes that takes some emotional boundaries to not get your hopes up. People think that you only market when you are available and ready to take on a job. But what? You're actually doing is marketing, so that people are aware of what you do and who you are. Yes, because it's going to take six to 12 months for them to be ready for a project.

Treasa Edmond: 5:38

And there's a difference between marketing and prospecting.

Treasa Edmond: 5:41

Oh yes, it's huge Prospecting is actively seeking active clients. Right now, marketing is keeping that funnel open so that you have potential clients in the wings and you're building out your calendar when it comes to long contracts. And let's go back to the startup issue I usually prefer not to work with startups because they are Is crap shoot the right word, sarah? Yeah, they can be problematic and it's not their fault. It's the nature of the beast. They are in flux, they are figuring out what works and part of that process is doing different things every three months, apparently.

Sarah Greenback: 6:25

Truly.

Sarah Greenback: 6:26

This is my understanding, for some people that really is thrilling and exciting and then they learn to charge enough for it that it was worth it and it works out. I have perhaps two friends that do thought leadership for startups and they're just built different, Like they really enjoy that kind of changing directions or they have enough boundaries in place that when someone changes directions it doesn't affect them and have everything come crashing down. But I do think you want to choose startups, you don't just want to jump on that if that's the first opportunity that pops up.

Treasa Edmond: 6:58

Exactly, and I will do writing and ghost writing and thought leadership and all of those things for startups, because it can be kind of hit or miss, it's fine. I don't have to have a regular relationship with them to do that. I will not, however, do content strategy for a startup, because that's a huge commitment of my time and effort, and I only do a content strategy for a client if I can help them succeed, and I can't guarantee that with a startup, because they will change their entire direction in the next year at some point. But because of my burn, because of the client that I had to let go, who was 80%, and I was, you know, in a situation where I did have to fill my time then my new rule of thumb is no one client can take more than 50% of my client hours, and I was talking to someone a few weeks ago that their rule of thumb is 30%, I think. So no more than 50% of my client hours for one client. So if we could scale that down, that might be a possibility.

Treasa Edmond: 7:56

Web developer is much different from writing, though, and that is everything has to build on everything, and it matters if they make a change. So when it comes to evaluating whether they're worth the risk I'd really look at. Can you handle this mentally, more than work related? Because there are going to be changes. It's going to require that you restart everything you do at some point. Are you willing to work with that and are you willing to just live in the flux that is startup world? I think those are even more important than is this client worth the risk of the 80%?

Sarah Greenback: 8:34

Well, and I feel pretty darn dumb because I missed the web developer part, because I was so focused on the year long part, and I would say that even adds even more of a red flag, because for a startup to look for web development support for a year, what they need to be doing is either hiring a web developer, so you might be at risk of actually being hired on in what they think is a full-time capacity, and that could be problematic for you but also illegal for them, depending on where they are and then also they should be looking at hiring like an agency that can take on this project at a really mature level and a really high fee. So I think, to look at it the way they should, you should be setting the timeline, not them, right? That's kind of a whole red flag already.

Treasa Edmond: 9:23

And I actually do have issues with that. If I'm working with a client long-term, I set the scope of the project, but it's with their input. It's always with their input. But you should be deciding how you're doing the project and how you're running your business. Your client shouldn't really have a set on that. And the fee thing so an excellent fee does not always counteract the inconvenience of working in certain situations. So that's just something to think about.

Sarah Greenback: 9:53

I was also really curious what an excellent fee is, because to me that might be a very different number.

Treasa Edmond: 9:59

Yeah, and we're both writers, and even between the two of us it might be a very different number.

Sarah Greenback: 10:03

Yeah.

Treasa Edmond: 10:04

That depends on what you set. But I personally, Claire, would say be very cautious in this situation, just across the board. You have to evaluate it. You do. Is it worth the risk to you? But I would definitely 100% recommend scaling it back so that they didn't take up 80% of your client hours. That's just me.

Sarah Greenback: 10:26

Yeah, and so I'm going to agree with everything we've set up to now and then also completely reverse my position for the last minute, just in case Claire is like you know what. I've actually decided to take this. I'm just trying to figure out how to make it work, and I'll just disclose I've absolutely leaned on an agency for more than 50% of my work at different periods of time and it really worked well for me. It allowed me to take all of my prospecting time and marketing time and channel it to something else that I was trying to switch to and shift to.

Sarah Greenback: 10:56

So, I think it can be done strategically and it's not necessarily the fact that you're going to tank your business suddenly because you've made this bad choice. It's just making sure that you're protecting yourself. To check in every three months Am I still prospecting? Could I dig up some work right now if I needed to? Am I doing these regular marketing activities and then taking a little time for myself? Am I leaning into the benefits of that stability Because you're going to lean into that benefit and it's going to lean you away from this other? What's that called Like?

Treasa Edmond: 11:30

protecting and hedging your bets, leaning to a different side of the spectrum. Yeah, so you can do it. You absolutely could do it. You just want to make sure that you do it right and you go into it with your eyes open, understanding where you're going with it. So control the process. Do not let the process control you, and make sure you understand all of the risks that are inherent with a decision like this. Sometimes the risks are totally worth it, absolutely. All right, that is day one with Sarah. Come back tomorrow and we're going to talk about what happens whenever you are working on a project and it's much more complex than you thought it would be.