I honestly think “being friends with clients” is overrated. Don’t get me wrong—I value building strong relationships, but I’d much rather focus on delivering good work and staying professional. There’s been more than one time where a client tried to cross that line, like asking me to grab drinks or share personal details, and it just made things awkward when the business side got tough. Clients are clients, not BFFs, and keeping those boundaries feels important for staying clear-headed when issues arise. Am I alone in this, or does anyone else feel like the lines get blurred sometimes? How do you handle it?

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Hm honestly on the other side of this nowadays. Used to be all business 100% of the time - I recently took up golf (many of my clients play) and now my meetings have gone from 2 hours of all serious business, to about a 45 minute light hearted meeting and a round after. I’ve gotten more done on the course and in the cart than numerous professional polished meetings. I enjoy the time a lot more and more importantly they do to. Now rather than just a business partner I’m a business partner and someone they enjoy seeing, spending time with and doing business with.

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I usually think of relationships with clients as friendly but not really friends. I've had conversations with business associates that have ranged far from business, and I don't mind that at all. Having friendly interactions will let you know how people think, so in that sense it's part of business. I think there's just a natural line where you don't get too close to people you're doing business with, and that's just instinctive in some ways, more art than science.

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Depends on the client.

I’ve had clients that became good friends - golf, dinners, outings with spouses. This was extremely helpful in being able to communicate honestly and convince the client to approve or support something.

I’ve also had clients that were malicious and political. I worked to build trust and understanding only in a professional setting - did not in any way encourage a personal relationship, even when my management was encouraging it.

The toughest arguably were clients who wanted to be buddy buddy, but it was forced on my part as I simply didn’t enjoy their company or really respect their work style.

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I think a lot of it depends on the client. I have a few that I do consider friends. But I also have more that I consider just that - clients. I am from the younger generation and I know those I work with in older generations consider a lot of their clients friends. It could be a generational thing.

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