I remember a client I considered one of my favorites. He brought me a lot of business. He never made any trouble. And he was easy to get along with.
Mike wore a lot of gold jewelry, had expensive clothes, wore strong smelling cologne, talked fast and was always in a hurry. He gambled on sports. And he always had a cold, if you know what I mean.
But that was his business. When the phone rang and Mike was on the line, it made my day.
Soon, things began to change.
I never had any problems with his cases. No accusations of anything funny. But he was either the most accident-prone guy on Earth or something shady was going on.
He called me with another case. I turned it down. There wasn’t anything wrong with it that I could see but when you smell trouble, you’ve got to go with what your gut tells you and my gut was yelling and screaming that Mike was up to no good.
Mike stopped calling. Did he find another attorney? Did the law catch up with him? A drug dealer? A bookie? Did he wrap himself around a telephone pole?
I never found out. He was gone and I was glad.
For awhile, Mike was my favorite client. But he was hardly an ideal client. It was early in my practice and I needed the money but I would never want more “Mikes”. An ideal client is someone who touches all the bases and Mike didn’t make the cut.
As you create a profile for your ideal client, don’t forget to check your gut. Even if your bank account says not to.
Need help creating a profile of your ideal client? Here it is
