HAPPY WEDNESDAY, MISFITS ✌🏼

Back at it again with another episode - and one y’all have been SCREAMING for since I started writing the minority misfit.

I’ll be honest, y’all - it’s been a crazy few weeks for me this side. And not necessarily the good kind. In our last episode, I manifested my calm and creative era - but as it happens (CLASSSSIC), real life got in the way and demanded pretty much all of my attention.

While I’m slowly swimming out the other side, I actually looked forward to writing this episode amidst literal chaos. Because the timing feels REALLY right for it.

It was a time where the systems I put in theory worked in practice, and I didn’t have to be overwhelmed by work and life simultaneously. And that’s a mega win for me.

So with that, let’s dive into how I manage multiple clients at a time and my TOP 3 learnings that’ll help YOU get it right from the start.

As Notorious B.I.G. so aptly put it: Mo Money Mo Problems (let’s forget Diddy’s involvement in that classic banger for obvious reasons).

Such CAN BE the case with clients - but if you operate from a place of abundance, clients bring with them opportunities to do things better, faster and smarter in your business. They’ll only become problems if you let them.

When I started keshty, I had 0 clients for 6 months - then a SNOWBALL moment where I went up to 8 over the course of a year (and back down to 4).

You might be thinking: what’s the sweet spot? Is there a silver bullet tool or process that’ll turn all problems into opportunities?

HANG ON - how can ONE person even manage multiple clients???

When you first start out, you’re hit with a hundred micro-incompetencies at once: things you’re capable of doing but are kinda bad at (mostly because you’ve never done them).

As long as you care (which you do), your first proposal, contract and invoice will probably take an exorbitant number of hours.

My first proposal took 2 days. My second took 1 day. My third took 12 hours.

And nearly 2 years later, I just submitted a proposal amidst the peak of my life’s chaos that took me 1 hour, which includes sending the email with next steps.

Is it because I give less sh*ts about my work? Am I dropping the ball and drowning? Honestly (and reassuringly), not at all.

💀 I simply codified to death.

I have a template for everything - one for my brand assets on their own, a template deck for proposals, email templates in Gmail and frequently asked-for resources I share with clients (to name a few).

Contract terms and invoices are also templated, but with quick variable fields (e.g. Business Name, Client Name, Date etc) so I can quickly plug, play and send away.

Call me crazy, but EVERY email you receive should have a filter applied and land in an organised folder. If you get an email and it doesn’t automatically pass through a filter, your options are to create a filter, unsubscribe or send to junk. That’s it.

* you already KNOW there are also sub-labels upon sub-labels too 😏. With 5 different Gmail profiles (3 client, 1 keshty, 1 personal), there are EVEN MORE filters in my life than the example provided here!

PS: if you’d like more game-changing organisation habits, check out my past episode: Small Steps to Digital Sanity.

Now that you’ve got your backend sorted, let’s move to the client-facing bits that end up being trickier to manage - starting with scope creep.

Scope creep happens when you’re asked to do work outside of your agreed remit.

Spoiler alert: it happens ALL THE TIME and looks like this:

It can be blatantly obvious, incredibly subtle or somewhere in between. Either way, it’s almost never ill-intended on the client’s part and may even be a great learning for how you set up arrangements in future.

For me, scope creep is exactly what made me firm about what arrangements I’ll sell my time (e.g. advisory) and what arrangements have to be TIGHTLY-SEALED projects, priced on an outcome basis (e.g. fCOO).

If a client just wants advice, we can be a bit more flexible on scope. But if I’m responsible for deliverables, it’s imperative we mitigate scope creep consistently. I say consistently because like building a habit, both you and the client HAVE to be consistently aligning and re-aligning on scope to manage each other’s expectations.

Ultimately, if something is out of your remit or skillset, you HAVE TO SPEAK UP. You can say yes and be liked in the moment - but struggle to deliver, and it’ll be your reputation that pays the price.

This is probably the single greatest learning I could ever impart:

Safeguarding your time is 100% on you.

Similar to scope creep, clients with the best intent in the world will ask for things when they need them - which is not always when you’re working on them.

If you say yes at a weekend, out of hours or when you’re working for other clients, you’re setting a precedence that will ONLY compound negatively.

The easiest way to get around this is by agreeing specific dates / times you work for clients. I’d especially recommend doing this at the start when trust and cadences are still being established. Clients know when to expect you, will ensure they make the best use of your time and (ideally) respect the time you’re not working for them.

If you establish enough trust and mutual respect that an ongoing, fluid arrangement works better in the long-term - GREAT! In my case, this took at least 6+ months to fine-tune with plenty of awkward, tricky and uncomfortable pushing back before we got it right.

If it’s not feeling seamless and easy, rest assured knowing it’s not and keep at it anyway.

🚫 don’t say yes to every opportunity (values)

Recall from Episode If It’s Not a F* Yes, It’s a No that saying no to opportunities is a finessed, disciplined art.

Simply put, it’s really hard to manage multiple clients when you don’t like working with them. Resentment and frustration will inevitably seep through to the clients you DO like, so get insanely good at flexing this muscle as early as possible.

⏳ don’t say yes to every opportunity (time)

In Episode Welp, I F*cked Up, we talked about how all that glitters is NOT gold - including having loads of clients. I went from 0 to 8 clients, wrote about how unsustainable it was, and am now back at a comfortable 4.

If we’re stretched too thin for time and lack employees or resources, EVEN the most organised of us will struggle. That struggle is a one-way ticket to burning out, so don’t be afraid to RUTHLESSLY protect your time and capacity. No one else can do it for you.

🤝 clients respect expectation management

I haven’t come across a single client who has ever said “TO HELL WITH YOUR OTHER CLIENT, DO THIS WORK FOR ME RIGHT NOW.” If you come across a personality like this, please stop working with them immediately.

If you take requests from clients outside their agreed hours, you might make them happy in the short-term, but in the long-term, they’ll question whether they’re paying you to work for others. It’s a lose-lose, so get comfortable managing expectations early and "disappointing people” to win the war over the battle.

And that’s a wrap on today’s episode, misfits 🫶🏼

As always, I’m only a message away for thoughts, questions and topic ideas. I read and sincerely appreciate every single poll / email response! Please keep them coming.

Before you go, could you let a girl know what you thought of this issue with the pulse check below? Good intent feedback is always welcome ⬇️

xo, Neds