How to drops client?

[KanyesVest]

I have a client for whom I do 15ish hours a week, but I end up giving it 30+hours of headspace. It's a small charity, I like the cause, the people it serves and the governors but it's taking up too much mental and emotional capacity. I'm the only "employee" and work with different governors (one in particular) on projects. I really need to quit, but I feel bad about it, especially as ive become quite friendly with a couple of the governors. Argh! Help me woman up here and compose an email to the chairman?

Why do you give it so much head space? Can you charge for more hours?

I told a client I wanted to stop working for that I'd taken on a large consultancy project and so would only be able to continue to the end of the month and then when I got emails after that asking me to do stuff I replied saying unfortunately I wasn't available for work at the present time.

They had been quite demanding, expecting me to do stuff last minute and were very slow to pay as well. I was relieved to not carry on with their stuff.

That, CocktailQueen, is an interesting question. I'll have to think about it. It's a lot of thinking about things in the middle of the night, when I'm doing the ironing, sitting in traffic, and if I did find a way to bill for it, it would take me over vat thresholds, etc which would cause other, bigger problems.

SaltySeaBird, I'm lucky that they are generally a "good" client, but I have other, probably easier options right now that I could take and make life easier. I don't want to burn bridges and I feel like I'd be letting them down. Which thought is leading to other thoughts about the question above...

From a legal point of view (and I advise on terminations all the time) if you are putting employed in quotes then presumably you are self employed. First check if there is a contract or terms and conditions. They might set out a minimum period of notice you have to give.

One of the most rewarding and satisfactory aspects of self employment is when you are able to pick and choose your clients for your own benefit. It means you've succeeded in growing your business up and over the threshold of having to do all work that comes you way for all clients. If you don't start making the hard decisions, you'll become a "busy fool" rather than a business-person. Absolutely nothing wrong in giving your client adequate notice that you'll no longer be able to work for them.

I've certainly had to "dis-engage" a number of clients over the years, some of which were genuinely nice people but the business side of things just didn't work, so they had to go. Likewise, I've often used subcontractors myself and had no problem at all when one gave me notice that they wouldn't be able to continue to provide their services for me.

The key to maintaining a friendship after the split is to get the timing right and give them plenty of notice to find a replacement. Worst thing is to announce an immediate stoppage, maybe at the worst time, and leave them in the smelly brown stuff!