I had a call yesterday afternoon from a client who I've worked for on and off for the past few years. I recently pitched to re-design their website, sort out some E-mail marketing for them and set up 3 blogs which would all be linked back to their (new) site. Their budget was tiny. I mean TINY. They only told me this after they'd given me their wish list. Oh - and they were also thinking of re-branding.

At this point I was sorely tempted to say that I wouldn't be able to do that amount of work for the money that was in their budget but I didn't. They're fairly local to where I live and I like them so I said I'd cost everything up and put it in writing to them. Which I did. I didn't hear anything then for a few weeks so I gave them a call. They said that they hadn't made a decision yet and that they'd call me the following week.

So yesterday afternoon they called to say that they were going with another design company but thanks for my time etc etc. Now this particular client had been on my (small) list of clients that I wanted to (quietly) stop working for. I won't go into the details as to why this was but needless to say they weren't a client I was particularly worried about losing. So when they told me they were going elsewhere, I should have been pleased and part of me was BUT a small part of me felt rejected.

14 odd years freelancing and it can still hurt when clients decide to go elsewhere - even though I kind of wanted them to anyway. It's like ditching an old girlfriend; you decide that you don't want to see her anymore but she gets in before you and finishes with you first. Ouch. I think it's healthy to recognise when a relationship with a client is coming to an end, like any relationship I guess. The trick is to manage the situation carefully so both parties feel OK about it. They handled the situation admirably; they were very polite and thanked me for my time so I thank them for that.

Still kind of hurts though.