It’s one of life’s difficult questions, which luckily as a long-term freelancer, I’ve only had to ask myself three times in nine years.

I usually post about interesting, positive, useful things to do with social media, blogging, editorial best-practice, media relations strategy and similar areas of core expertise – with the odd bit of funny, unusual, business experience thrown in for good measure.

There’s been the odd bit of consumer injustice covered, such as the ongoing debacle with life-threatening service from Kwik Fit, but mostly it’s all pretty upbeat content.

I’ve covered off the odd negative item now and then, as necessary for readership benefit.

So, returning to my initial blog post question – Is there a right time for a freelancer to sack a client?

My answer is Yes – and on the three occasions in the past nine years where I’ve been forced to do it, each time was the right time.

As a freelancer, you choose who to work with. And who not to.

I had one of the three ex-clients, a one-man-band video and podcast producer, sending one of my trusted and very happy current Agency clients in Bristol, a personal message across LinkedIn last week, saying a few inaccurate and slanderous comments about my delivery to them of media relations services over a short (emphasizes the word short) period of time in 2009.

I won’t name the ex-client, as the point of the post is to highlight a bigger issue than one individual’s name, of course.

It was also, for your information, a short period of time, as I was forced to give them Notice of Termination of Contract, after it became painfully clear that the ex-client thought that they knew more about media relations than I did – a newspaper and magazine Editor of more than a decade’s experience, no less.

Not to mention the PR stints I’ve delivered for the likes of Apple and Mitel Networks.

The warning signs? They were, and in no particular order, as follows:

* Ex-client spends nearly the entire first meeting telling me how to deliver media relations (the service they’ve hired me to do for them)

* Ex-client makes six sets of amendments to the first press release copy (this has never happened before or since: even Apple, with their meticulous and orchestrated global PR machine, only ever made minor tweaks to copy I produced for them in the past)

* Ex-client is consistently verbally aggressive, bullish, and generally unpleasant when everything else isn’t dropped immediately for them (bearing in mind, I usually work with up to nine clients at any one time, giving excellent service to all, not just one)  – I also found out soon after that the ex-client had taken the same aggressive approach (just prior to hiring me) with a large, well-respected, and long-established PR Agency in Bristol…

* Ex-client threatens not to pay due consultancy Fees if certain things aren’t done the way they want them to be done – rather than as is Contractually agreed (trying to financially blackmail an established media freelancer with a great reputation is obviously a bad idea)

* Ex-client dismissed Contractual obligations of any kind (at the time, I was offering a Guaranteed Results Programme over a six-month Campaign period: if clients didn’t get at least their Fees paid back in press coverage terms in the six months, the Fees were returned in full, without quibble. The ex-client had not completed even half this time, when I was forced to sack him)

* Ex-client threatens to go legal if all Fees are not returned (even though I reminded the ex-client they were liable for another three months’ Fees, as per the Contract, and that they hadn’t completed the full six months, thus nullifying the Guarantee anyway)

Yes, you’ve guessed it – the ex-client was sacked. And I learned some incredibly valuable lessons.

It got me to review the services delivered at the time, and to gain some important and positive insights: I discovered that every single client who had previously engaged in and completed a six-month media relations Programme had gained significant and multiple press coverage.

Every single client.

There was a consistency in delivery from that fact-finding exercise which I’m still extremely happy with, and proud of, even though I don’t deliver much in the way of offline media relations anymore: the market is all about blogging and social media now.

I also learned: If it walks and talks like a bad client from day one – it’s probably a bad client. Sack them and move on. Consider it, in every sense, a Bad Debt. Align your freelance time and efforts with the clients you really want to work with.

I think the issue of when to sack a bad client also comes down to the confidence of the freelancer.

Let’s face it, if as freelancers we all worked with any kind of client, and chased only cash cash cash, what would be the point of actually living a freelance working life in the first place. One may as well be working for ‘The Man’ and resigning yourself to a gold watch in the future.

My business model revolves around a freelance-style delivery because it suits me, and the clients I work with, on a longer-term basis. I’m in the incredibly fortunate position to be able to say the following of all of my current clients:

* I like the client

* I admire their company

* I respect the way they do business

Returning to last week’s little incident from the ex-client and the message they posted to one of my current clients, I must conclude by adding that the current client immediately emailed the ex-client, to tell him how surprised they were to receive such a message, and how incredibly happy they were with everything which had been delivered by Bristol Editor.

This, of course, made me very happy. My current clients are absolute gems of integrity, good working practice, and professional conduct.

But then again, I make a point of inviting my clients-to-be the opportunity to talk to all of my current clients before they sign a Contract with me. Nothing to hide, nothing to fear – that’s my working motto.

So, if you’re in the position as a freelancer – whether it’s a freelance editor, freelance PR, freelance copywriter, or similar – and you have a client from Hell like the guy I’ve described to you above, ask yourself this question.

Is now the right time to sack them?

More importantly, can you afford not to sack them.