Q: How do you handle clients that ghost mid-project?

A: From the beginning…

Lemme splain…

Things happen, so set out your terms for project abandonment and what it takes to have that project reinstated. Feel free to swipe my script:

A project is considered inactive when response is not received within____ days.

A project is considered abandoned after ___ days. Any outstanding balance must be paid in full and cleared prior to restarting an abandoned project.

If more than ___ days have passed since last project activity, new project fees apply and are due in full prior to starting.

By all means, try your best to follow up and see what’s going on, but that timer starts on the ___* day of no response.

*you should also establish a time period in which either side will respond.

e.g. my clients are told to expect responses from me in 2 or 3 biz days…

…and that I expect to hear from them within 2-3 biz days, even if to say they need more time.

If I don’t hear from them, I follow up twice. Still nothing? On to the next.

This is for service based businesses.

Custom product could follow a similar path. In both of these instances you need to be sure your processes and payments made line up.

Regular physical products, you just need to hold on to it; for length of time, you should consult your favorite legal expert.

Did this help?