How to Get Out of a Client Contract You Don’t Want to Be In
Have you ever felt like you were in prison because of a new client contract you brought on board?
I did a favor for a friend and engaged in contract to do the branding for a company I had no business being involved in. I needed the money, so I took on the contract.
The red flags came up from the beginning. He was too demanding, acted like he knew it all, was broke and could barely afford the service, and I discounted it to help this client out.
I basically broke every cardinal rule that I tell my clients not to do. I was frustrated at the client, but I was more frustrated at myself.
We do this a lot as Entrepreneurs – get into situations that are out of our sweet spot. This puts us in an unfamiliar territory that takes up more time and energy than a “perfect client”.
What do we do when the place where we’re at right now is not where we want to be? We’d rather be servicing a different type of clients, doing a different service, but we’ve trapped ourselves in a temporary contract that we can’t leave?.
How do we survive this place we’ve put ourselves into?. God has amazing plans for this place you’re in if you take on the right attitude and perspective.
The bible says
"Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." (Collosians 2:6-7)
You might have gotten yourself into a bad situation, but I guarantee that God has a great lesson in play for you within that contract.
The lesson in these cases is always related to HOW you will act THROUGH the process so that in hindsight you can always say “I did what Jesus would have done.” In my case, I had to get over the fact that I’ve made more money per hour than this client, and that I should have known better. Neither of these attitudes will serve me.
Instead, I focused on being Jesus for that little season. It only lasted 2 weeks (which felt like an eternity), but got to practice grace, mercy and patience.
I kept asking myself this one question: “When this is all said and done, what will this client say if they found out I was a devout follower of Christ?” Would he say “Yeah that makes sense, he was a great guy!” Or would he say “Well he sure didn’t act like he was Christian.”
Our places and the situations we get ourselves into are not an accident. Your services and products will always lead you to many different types of contracts and clients in business life. As a Godpreneur, you have the freedom to bring our gifts and talents anywhere and be a potential “light”, even in the most terrible of situations you get yourself into.
It’s not about where we are right now, it’s all about how we execute, wherever you are placed.
Contracts will never fulfill us. Clients shouldn’t be were we get out contentment, but can serve as the fertile ground for God to make himself known through us. And if we each played our part, from web developers to restaurant owners, we would get to heaven and know that in our little business, we were a part of something too big to ever conceive of while we were here.
It’s not our contracts, it’s what we do in our contracts.
What’s the current client you wish you could get rid of, and how are you seeing God work in the contract through you?