Sep 10, 2026 · 13 min · 9 segments
Signing the wrong client can mean months, or years, of stress, churn, and heartburn. In this episode, Carly and Joe break down how to vet clients and contractors before you commit. They cover why…
Joe RandoHost
Carly RiesHost
I like to think about clients and contractors, you know, employees, contractors differently.
Not that they're totally related, but I do think it's good to have a kind of a slightly different perspective on each.
I mean, the first thing, it starts with doing the homework, right? And going back to defining your business.
What do you do? Who do you do it for? You know, what are the products that you're offering? And if you have all that stuff down and then you stick to it, you're not going to be in a situation where you're going to easily come across the wrong client.
I mean, there's obviously the personality issues and things that are going to be different for everyone that you talk to.
But if you don't start out with a very clear idea The kind of people you work with – and what I mean by that is your target customer.
If your target customers are people that own restaurants and somebody comes along with a dental practice and says, I want to hire you, you should be thinking hard about that because, again, it's just – and it goes back to the last episode of the problem client.
Now all of a sudden they're special, they're different, and you're doing other stuff and it's not efficient.
So the idea is to get that homework done of defining who your customer is, what it is you do, what your products are.
And then when you start to evaluate working with someone and they evaluate you, you have those pieces in place.
So that's kind of the blocking and tackling, as my dad would say, of the situation.
Then, I mean, to me, I'd like your opinion, Carly, because you're much more of a people person than I am.
If they need your product the way you serve it up and they're the kind of people that you're serving, then are they the right kind of person? Are you the right kind of person to work together?
I like to think about clients and contractors, you know, employees, contractors differently.
Not that they're totally related, but I do think it's good to have a kind of a slightly different perspective on each.
I mean, the first thing, it starts with doing the homework, right? And going back to defining your business.
What do you do? Who do you do it for? You know, what are the products that you're offering? And if you have all that stuff down and then you stick to it, you're not going to be in a situation where you're going to easily come across the wrong client.
I mean, there's obviously the personality issues and things that are going to be different for everyone that you talk to.
But if you don't start out with a very clear idea The kind of people you work with – and what I mean by that is your target customer.
If your target customers are people that own restaurants and somebody comes along with a dental practice and says, I want to hire you, you should be thinking hard about that because, again, it's just – and it goes back to the last episode of the problem client.
Now all of a sudden they're special, they're different, and you're doing other stuff and it's not efficient.
So the idea is to get that homework done of defining who your customer is, what it is you do, what your products are.
And then when you start to evaluate working with someone and they evaluate you, you have those pieces in place.
So that's kind of the blocking and tackling, as my dad would say, of the situation.
Then, I mean, to me, I'd like your opinion, Carly, because you're much more of a people person than I am.
If they need your product the way you serve it up and they're the kind of people that you're serving, then are they the right kind of person? Are you the right kind of person to work together?
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