OP--
I’m a serial entrepreneur with several successful businesses under my belt, including a professional services firm.
All due respect--but you made a couple of rookie mistakes, and they’ve caused this problem.
Mistake 1: You talked/emailed with a prospect for 1.5 hours without telling her that you had mentally started the meter from the first contact. Typically, the process with a professional service provider is: some free talk/email to get the prospect to a “yes” on buying services, contracting services, and providing paid services.
You, instead, want to start providing paid services from very first contact. Not standard—but you’re welcome to do it—because of course it’s your business. But how was she supposed to know that?
To head this off in the future, you can keep your current approach of “all is billed” but be very clear from the jump that all contact is charged. Or you can develop your skills in managing prospective client communication so you have that short “free” conversation before engagement. There is a science and art to it: creating rapport; comprehending a “technical” issue; establishing your credibility, expertise and ability to handle that issue; and sizing up what the client will be like to work with—all at lightening speed in a first brief talk/email exchange. It can be learned. Read some of the good consulting books out there for suggestions.
Mistake #2: You haven’t understood how to set professional services fees. All professional services have overhead costs, such as marketing, that can’t be client-hourly billed. So you set your hourly fee to include this overhead. Again, read the good consulting books. They’ll take you through the process of setting fees.
Mistake #3: You say that you “want clients who won’t bitch about their bills”--and seem to assume that this type of client is born not made. Sure, some people are horrible to work with—though I’m not sure you’ve run into that type here. But beyond that, satisfied clients are the result of hard work on YOUR part—not only on the accounting itself, but on things large and small through the entire the process of working with you. Again, hit the books for specific techniques.
I could go on, as I also see some other concerning attitudes in your post, but I’ll just finish with this: if the above three items seem like “too much work” or things you’re not willing to do because they’re not billable, then I’d urge you to ditch solo practice for part time work where you can just focus on the accounting. And that’s not something I say all the time. Normally, I’m the forum’s biggest self employment cheerleader!
