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How to break up with clients

The “dos and don’ts” of letting go for designers

Jon Robinson
UX Collective
A colorful illustration of a tombstone with the epitaph “Sick of this shit”
Illustration by Alaina Johnson

Whether you’re a freelancer, an agency vet, or part of an in-house team, building trust with your clients and stakeholders is a key to developing successful business relationships. But there’s a lot to unpack in that process: Open and transparent communication, demonstration of expertise and knowledge, reliability, flexibility, good listening skills, consistent habits and delivery, and honesty all come to mind (and there are probably many more).

But even when you pay attention to all these things, and do your best to nurture your business relationships, they can still sour—this is especially true for your client relationships. When you find yourself at that breaking point, you have to know when to walk away (and how to do it).

When relationships work

After many years of freelancing in the design world and building trustworthy and respectful relationships with my best clients, most of my business prospects grew organically. That’s a huge benefit of putting in the work: People happily recommend you to their friends and colleagues when you consistently deliver on your promises.

And the more time passed, the personal value of my freelancing efforts definitely shifted from exploring opportunities and…

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Responses (3)

What are your thoughts?

Thanks for sharing your experience with this topic. Out of curiosity, what prompts did you use to get that first draft of the design documentation? I’m interested mainly in how you refined your prompt for a better result.

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