DEAR HARRIETTE: I have a small consulting firm, and I am working to build my clientele. One of my new clients is nice but difficult. He is always late for meetings or reschedules at the last minute. I don’t want to walk away from this client, but I can’t afford to sit around and not accept other work only for him to cancel at a moment’s notice. I’m nervous about charging a kill fee or full fee for a no-show, but I’m not sure what else to do. -- Value My Time
DEAR VALUE MY TIME: You should make guidelines for your clients that explain your terms for no-shows or late-comers. If you have a standard policy that you follow, no client should take it personally when you charge them for time that they have squandered. While you may feel nervous about losing this client, you will need to assess whether it’s actually worth it for you to keep him if he is so unreliable that it’s costing you money.
Since you have not previously instituted a kill fee, you can let him know that moving forward you will now be instituting this fee, and you hope he understands.
(Harriette Cole is a lifestylist and founder of DREAMLEAPERS, an initiative to help people access and activate their dreams. You can send questions to askharriette@harriettecole.com or c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)