Nathan Exposed » The Highs and Lows of Clients

The Highs and Lows of Clients

As the year draws to a close, I’ve decided to make a list of every client I’ve worked with in 2007. This has been my first full year of being self employed, as of March 1st. Seeing it all on a page really puts things into perspective. Look how blessed I’ve been to have so many good clients. The good far outweighs the bad, and that makes me very proud.

MY LITTLE ANGELS:

The Fag Hag - This woman was the perfect client. She had common sense, she understood how to communicate effectively, and she has a wicked sense of humor. I’d love to clone her and work with more people like her.

The Photographer - He has an artistic mind like I do, so working together was easy. Thanks to the creative freedom he gave me, I was able to build one of my best websites for him. He’s also come back for multiple projects, and once he even sent me a check before I’d had time to bill him. Wow.

The E-Commerce Guy - Easy to work with, pretty down to earth. There were some bad choices he made which made my job harder, but ultimately they will affect him because he’s not running his site the way he should. But as far as being a traditional “good client”, he’s been a gem.

The Hollywood Transplant - She called me right before she moved away from a huge Hollywood firm and when she got to Nashville, she became a client, just as she said she would. Really nice, and very prompt.

The Good Ol’ Boy - This man had redneck written all over him, and I was actually nervous meeting him because I thought he was going to start talking about “titties” at any given moment. But he surprised me. He was actually very professional and easy to work with.

The Immigrant - Communication was a challenge, but this woman actually turned out to have really good ideas. My patience paid off with this one.

The Secret Admirer - I’ll admit it was very uncomfortable when he told me he “had feelings for me”. But weirdness aside, he’s a good client, and he let me do my job on the project.

The Unexpected Friend - I saw him check out my ass when I was walking away, but you can’t blame a gay man for being gay. He has turned out to be a good friend and one of the nicest people I know. I’m impressed. He’s even referred some business to me.

The Insurance Agent - He provides our insurance, I provide his marketing material.

The Ex-Employer - Persistence really paid off with him. 2 years after leaving his design firm in North Carolina, the stars aligned and I started doing work for him again. It probably didn’t hurt that I kept my name fresh in his mind every couple of months.

The Non-Profit - Who knew non-profits had so much dough? Anyway, good clients, very well paying too.

The eBayer - A very nice guy that happens to be the partner of my doctor. He’s another example of someone who gave me total creative freedom, and the results were beautiful.

The Friendly Talker - Easy to work with, but way too talkative. He really liked the job I did, and I liked him, so I guess that’s all that matters.

The Realtor - Instead of doing design work, she actually hired me to teach her how to use her computer. She was a good student and easy to work with.

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The BAD EGGS:

The OCD Guy - This man is driving me crazy! Every time I e-mail him, instead of responding with a simple answer, he calls me to talk for 15 minutes. I was convinced his e-mail program was missing a “Reply” button! Instead, he only knew how to check mail and write mail, but didn’t understand the concept of replying to it. I finally had to tell him to please stop calling so much because he was interrupting my concentration. So what did he do? He started e-mailing me every 5 minutes. Argh!

The Thief - This is a true lesson learned! He suckered me out of $800 worth of work without paying for it, and then had the nerve to report me to the BBB. Luckily the BBB saw how crazy this guy was and sided with me. I never got paid, but thanks to this guy, I now require a deposit and contract from everyone.

The Douche - He got 6 hours of free work from me before going with someone else. Yes, this is before I required deposits and contracts. He then came back to me a few months later wanting my services. I required a deposit from him and he promptly paid me. But after thinking about how much I disliked him, I gave the money back and told him he’d need to find someone else.

The Confused Kid - I hate using age discrimination against people because I don’t like it when it’s done to me. But this was truly a young, confused kid who had no idea what he wanted. He did pay me a deposit, but he was just a huge pain to work with. Mid-way through the project, I quit, and gave him his money back.

The Crazy Marketers - I’m not violent, and I would never physically hurt someone. But let’s just pretend that life is a video game, I’m Mario, and they are represented by Bowser. I would shoot them with fireballs, then pounce on them until the bridge collapsed and they fell into a boiling pool of lava. Then, I’d drag the burned carcass out, stomp on it again, and cover it in gasoline before throwing it back in. One time I took a picture of one of them, and she joked that I’d be making it into a dart board. She laughed, I didn’t. Thanks for the idea. I haven’t ruled it out yet.