Side Quests · Small missions. Real progress.
Time: 15 minutes | Cost: Free | You’ll need: A notes app, document, or spreadsheet, and your memory of past clients or customers.
Every side hustler has had at least one client who should have been a warning sign from the start: the one who haggled before even seeing your work, ghosted mid-project, or kept adding “just one more thing” without paying extra. The signs were usually there early. You just didn’t have them written down to compare against. This quest fixes that by turning your past experience into a short, reusable screening list you can check new inquiries against before you commit.
Your mission: Think back over your difficult past clients or customers, pull out the patterns they had in common, and turn them into a short list of red flags you can quietly check future inquiries against.
How to build it
- List your three toughest past clients or customers. They don’t have to be the worst ever, just the ones that come to mind fastest when you think “that was a headache.” Write their initials or a short nickname so you remember who you mean, but don’t worry about identifying details.
- For each one, write down what happened before you started working together. Think about the first message, the first call, or the first request. Did they push hard on price right away? Were they vague about what they actually wanted? Did they rush you to decide? Capture the specific behavior, not just a feeling.
- Circle the patterns that repeat across more than one person. If two or three of your tough clients all haggled immediately, or all gave unclear project details, or all wanted rush turnaround at a discount, that’s a real signal worth tracking, not a one-off coincidence.
- Turn each repeated pattern into one short, neutral line on your red flag list. Keep the wording factual, not judgmental, since you may want to share parts of this with a future business partner or use it to coach yourself calmly. Examples: “Asks for a discount before seeing a sample of my work,” “Can’t describe the end result they want in one sentence,” “Wants same-day delivery on first contact.” Aim for five to seven lines total.
- Save the list somewhere you’ll actually see it before saying yes to new work. Pin it near your inquiry form, tape it by your phone, or drop it at the top of your client intake notes. The goal isn’t to reject people automatically. It’s to notice the pattern early enough to ask one more clarifying question, request a deposit, or simply decide with open eyes instead of hindsight.
Quest complete when: You have a written list of five to seven real red flags based on your own past clients, saved somewhere you’ll see it the next time a new inquiry comes in.
