Running your own business can be a lot of fun as you are making money from doing your passion and rejoicing in the fact that you are working for yourself. Of course, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows; downsides come with being independent – and one of these is potentially bad customers. After all, nothing can ruin your day more than dealing with a bad customer.

Not only can difficult customers harm the way that you view your business, but they can also damage it too. Realistically, you will want to avoid going into business with some kinds of clients, and with this notion in mind, the following article will discuss the traits you should look out for that point to someone being a bad customer – so that you might be able to avoid them, if possible.

They Don’t Pay When They Should

Naturally, when it comes to starting your own business and trying to reach out to new customers, you will want to be personable and approachable. That being said, you shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that you are running a business; as such, you need to make sure that there is a back and forth for the products or services you provide.

If a customer is not paying you, this is a bad sign, and if the problem is recurring, it may be a client you want to consider dropping. If you are currently in a situation where you are awaiting payment from a client, then be sure to consider invoice factoring, which will help you get money from unpaid invoices.

Their Demands are Unclear or Change

As a business owner, you’ll often come across many challenging customers with demands that remain unclear or frequently change, which is no good for business as it can result in a massive waste of your time – not to mention money. If you have spent days or weeks on some kind of proposal, only to take it to a client who has decided they want something completely different from what they originally said, then what’s the point of all the hard work you put in?

To avoid wasted time and effort, you need to be sure you are working with clients who know what they want or, at the very least, are good at answering questions when it comes to working out what they want. Sure, sometimes poor communication or misinterpretation can be a factor, but if this recurs, you might have yourself a bad customer on your hands.

They’re Never Available

In order to have a good working relationship with a customer,communication must be upheld. This isn’t always the case as some customers become almost impossible to get a hold of, which can be exceptionally frustrating and time-consuming for a business owner trying to meet the demands of their clients.

If you find yourself frequently unable to get in contact with your client, you should consider moving on from them; it will be impossible to finalise their work if they don’t get back to you about it. Plus, customers like this are usually the ones who take forever to pay invoices and leave you waiting weeks, maybe even months to get payment for your work.