Every week I talk to people who are halfway through a project and suddenly realize something feels off. Not a disaster. Not a dramatic failure. Just a quiet sense that the vendor they hired might not be the right fit after all.
It usually shows up in small ways at first. A missed detail. A vague answer. A timeline that keeps shifting without anyone explaining why. Most clients try to ignore it because they want the project to work. They want to trust the person they hired. They want to believe the bumps are temporary.
But the truth is that most of these situations started long before the client noticed anything. The early signs were there. They just didn’t look like red flags at the time.
One client told me recently that the vendor kept saying “we’ll figure it out as we go.” At the moment, it sounded flexible and friendly. A few weeks later, it became clear that “figure it out” meant “we never actually agreed on the plan.”
Another client said they felt uncomfortable asking basic questions because the vendor made them feel like they were slowing things down. That dynamic never improves. If anything, it gets worse as the project gets more complicated.
Here are a few patterns I see when people start doubting their choice:
The vendor avoids specifics. Clients hear enthusiasm, but they don’t get clarity.
The timeline keeps moving. Not dramatically, just enough to create a low level of stress.
The client feels like they’re managing the project. Even though they hired someone specifically so they wouldn’t have to.
The communication style doesn’t match. One side wants structure. The other prefers improvisation.
None of these things make a vendor “bad.” Most of the time, they’re simply operating the way they always have. The problem is that the client expected something different, and nobody caught the mismatch early enough.
When people come to me for help, it’s rarely because the vendor is doing something wrong. It’s because the client feels alone in the process. They don’t know how to reset expectations without creating tension. They don’t want to micromanage. They don’t want conflict. They just want the project to feel steady again.
The interesting thing is that once the client has someone neutral in the mix, the tone of the project changes almost immediately. The vendor becomes clearer. The client becomes calmer. The conversations become more direct. Everyone knows what is expected.
Most of the time, the project gets back on track. Not because anything dramatic happened, but because someone finally created structure.
If you’re in the middle of a project and something feels off, trust that feeling. It doesn’t mean you hired the wrong person. It usually means the project needs a reset. A little clarity goes a long way.
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