I’m not in today, really. I’m posting this well ahead of time. Daughter is headed back to college and I must drive her across the state lest my car disappears for weeks on end. And wouldn’t you know it – the minute I can’t be around, the clients come calling. In droves.
It’s an odd phenomenon – they see Labor Day as some arbitrary must-have-it-by deadline. All four clients who called last week expect their projects to be completed by yours truly no later than Labor Day. And all believe they’re my only priority.
I have two other commitments to complete first, then the daughter’s return to school, and now I’m tapped to write a client piece this week, edit a society paper this week, and oh, proofread a rather large manuscript by, you guessed it, this week. Note that it’s Wednesday. Note also that I’ve received none of these projects as of this writing (I’m writing this Tuesday the 19th). Not everyone will be happy, least of all me. I am anal about deadlines and I refuse to say yes to something if I can’t meet the deadline. So I’ll work my 10 or 12-hour days again and I’ll do my best.
What do you do in a case like this? I let everyone involved know that I wouldn’t be in today or tomorrow. Sorry folks, but my kid comes first. Beyond that, I’m taking these in the order in which they came in and not based on the amount of fussing or pleading that’s involved. I’m only one person. Last I looked, I don’t even own a cape, so you get what you get.
How about you? Have you yet seen an upsurge in your workload?
Go you! The one thing that I vowed (after my dad wasn’t around) that I would always put my kids first no matter what. I want to be there to pick them up from their first day of school, their first date (note that my daughter won’t date until she is 30 😉 ) and all of those other parenting firsts. I commend you in putting your daughter first.
As far as the workload, I don’t really have one other than my normal job, which is coming up on the end of the fiscal year for military and government entities, so we are busy there. I wish I was busy with freelance stuff, but haven’t made it that far yet.
The summer’s been mostly focused on fiction and on theatre; I haven’t been pitching for much. Bad freelancer! I got two article assignments over the weekend from pitches I made back a few months ago. One I turned around immediatelly and sent before I left to come to Philly; the other isn’t due until late Sept., although I’ll start it this week.
How many of these clients are paying you the rush fee for frantic turnaround? That would also factor in to my prioritization. Beg, plead all you want — you want it really fast, this is how much extra it costs. How long have you known you needed it this week? And why didn’t you give me the appropriate lead time? This is how much your disorganizaiton costs.
Begging and pleading only makes my price go up. It doesn’t get the client any sympathy.
The past two weeks have been super busy for me as well, with no break in sight until at least the end of the month. I haven’t noticed the Labor Day crunch before but financially I rather like it. It pays for the vacation most of us took earlier in the summer, right? May your trip to and from your daughter’s campus be a safe one.
I also go by first-come, first-served when it comes to a line-up of clients. Just this morning I had to let a regular client know that I’m booked to the gills with deadlines for the rest of the week, but if he didn’t mind waiting until Monday I could have his work done then, which he ok’ed. I tend to not allow my schedule to get too tight, as I like to leave time for the inevitable last minute re-writes and hiccups.
The whole month of August has been unusually busy for me . . . I’m trying to take it in stride and see it for the good thing that it is, instead of feeling overwhelmed.
The fact that each of your clients thinks they are your top priority speaks to your professional-ness (?!). You must provide excellent customer service!
Yes, Lori, business has been picking up nicely on my end. I already have projects scheduled through to the end of September. My schedule’s packed tightly for the next two weeks – I think I may have overdone it… Thank goodness school has started!:)