Sep 3, 2026 · 13 min · 9 segments
Every solopreneur eventually meets the client who pays the bills but crushes the soul. The one who calls at odd hours, ignores your boundaries, pays late, and somehow still feels impossible to let go…
Carly RiesHost
Joe RandoHost
I feel like when we talk to life for entrepreneurs, because these are people that don't necessarily want to pay or don't necessarily wanna work 60 hours a week and give their life to their entire business, but they do need to make a paycheck.

The client that doesn't respect boundaries, that calls at odd hours of the night, that is rude, that doesn't pay on time.

Maybe this isn't all the same client, but these are all just examples of just a really frustrating client But people feel like they need to hang on to them because they pay.

But again, like I said, if it's at the risk of working 60 hours a week and not respecting boundaries, is that a life-first business? I want to know your thoughts.

Well, can I just add a clarification before I take that on? That is sometimes they're not horrible.

And what I mean by that is if you have a business doing X and you – Either someone comes along or someone came along early in the business and has you doing Y.

Maybe that person is perfectly reasonable and nice, pays their bills on time, does everything great, but you're doing something that's not your core business and it's completely eating your time because you've got to do something different for this one client out of 10 or whatever it is.

So that is also a problem client and probably a more difficult one because they're not even nasty.

I feel like when we talk to life for entrepreneurs, because these are people that don't necessarily want to pay or don't necessarily wanna work 60 hours a week and give their life to their entire business, but they do need to make a paycheck.

The client that doesn't respect boundaries, that calls at odd hours of the night, that is rude, that doesn't pay on time.

Maybe this isn't all the same client, but these are all just examples of just a really frustrating client But people feel like they need to hang on to them because they pay.

But again, like I said, if it's at the risk of working 60 hours a week and not respecting boundaries, is that a life-first business? I want to know your thoughts.

Well, can I just add a clarification before I take that on? That is sometimes they're not horrible.

And what I mean by that is if you have a business doing X and you – Either someone comes along or someone came along early in the business and has you doing Y.

Maybe that person is perfectly reasonable and nice, pays their bills on time, does everything great, but you're doing something that's not your core business and it's completely eating your time because you've got to do something different for this one client out of 10 or whatever it is.

So that is also a problem client and probably a more difficult one because they're not even nasty.
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