I sat at the dinner table in my fifth-floor apartment.
The warm late-morning sun poured through the windows.
Outside, a big pine tree swayed gently in the breeze.
Beyond it, the green mountains of Medellín touched the perfect blue sky.
It was a day meant for coffee in the plaza…not for what I was about to do.
Across from me sat the two architects we’d been working with for months on the design of our planned eco-hotel.
My two partners were next to me, silent, waiting.
We’d decided I would be the one to speak.
I rehearsed the words in my head, trying to string together the right words in Spanish to politely tell them it wasn’t working out.
My stomach tightened.
My palms felt damp against the table.
I didn’t know how they’d react.
I didn’t know what I’d say if they took it badly.
Any way you learn to fire someone is the hard way. There’s no easy version.
We’d known for a long time they weren’t delivering what we needed.
But we liked them. We felt aligned.
Letting them go felt uncomfortable… like an admission that we’d been wrong.
Like throwing away months of work and money with nothing to show for it.
Eventually, I said the words.
They were gracious and understanding.
We moved on.
The Lesson I Didn’t Learn
Two years later, we were in the thick of construction.
The project manager and budget manager sat us down for a meeeting.
They told us we were massively over budget and behind schedule.
We should have fired them on the spot.
Instead, we kept them for months.
Paying them more than we were making.
Why?
Because we thought we didn’t have options.
They had skills we didn’t. They had the relationships. They knew the “map” of the project.
But we were wrong.
We did have options.
We just didn’t believe it.
That Mistake Followed Me Into Freelancing
I’ve repeated that pattern with clients.
The client who pays late.
The one who treats everything like an emergency.
The one who calls or texts at all hours of the day and weekend expecting immediate responses.
The one who ignores my recommendations and then gets upset when they don’t get the result they want.
I’ve kept them for the same reason I kept those managers in the hotel project: fear.
Fear of losing the income.
Fear of not finding someone else to replace them.
Fear of rocking the boat.
And here’s the thing: without a steady flow of leads, every bad client feels like a necessary evil.
You convince yourself you’re stuck.
Worse Than a Bad Job
A bad job at least comes with benefits, time off, maybe a retirement plan.
A bad client gives you none of that…
Plus the stress of unpredictable pay and zero boundaries.
The Real Lesson
Fire clients faster. Yes.
But the real lesson is: build options before you need them.
That means:
Keep your marketing and outreach going even when you’re busy.
Build and nurture your email list.
Stay in conversations with potential clients, even if you’re “full.”
Have a small set of offers ready to sell at different price points.
Options give you power.
Without them, fear makes your decisions for you.
The Question to Ask Yourself
If this client ended the contract tomorrow, would you be relieved or panicked?
If the answer is “relieved,” you already know what you need to do.
The only thing keeping you is fear.
This is Letter #5 of 'Solopreneur Letters' – a series I’m writing where I share the hard-earned wisdom I wish I’d had when I started on my solopreneur journey. See the full list:
