The Dangers of Falling into a Rut
It happens to all of us. We get comfortable doing the same old thing, and pretty soon we’re in trouble. Well, this week it happened to me.
I have this client that I love working for. They are friendly, professional, and pay very quickly. They give me all kinds of freedom to write on a host of different topics. Whenever they have an assignment, I bend over backwards to make sure I can fill it for them.
You may wonder what the problem is. Until I entered my earnings for the last two months into Quickbooks, I didn’t think there was a problem. Once I pulled up my Profit and Loss charts I realized that little by little, I’ve been charging less and less for my work with these people. What started out as a high paying gig is now only paying so-so.
And the worst part is that I have been letting other jobs slide by just so I could keep working for these folks. That means I’m losing even more money than I can account for. I’ve been kicking myself all day over it.
Does this mean I’m going to fire my clients? Nope. As I said, I enjoy working for them, and they occasionally have larger budgets for different assignments.
What it means is that I’m going to accept less work from them. This company is an ideal ‘if I’m desperate/hungry/need some work to pay the bills’ kind of client. It is worth my while to keep them.
Do you have clients like this? If you haven’t done a detailed analysis of your business, how do you know for sure? Don’t fall into this same trap. Run a detailed analysis of your clients and see what is bringing in the most money, and what is losing you money.