Super day yesterday. I managed to get nearly 500 words down on a 1,500-word article and I’ve yet to touch the interviews. It’s going well, amen. I scheduled a few more interviews – three for today – and I hope to have most of these articles at least roughed in by the time I shut this thing down on Wednesday afternoon. Vacation starts Thursday and I can’t relax if work is on my mind (like you, Jake).
In our discussion yesterday, Cathy Miller said something quite profound: “… until you believe in your own worth, you will remain mired in chasing the too small buck.”
As she says, it’s that “ah-ha” moment when you realize undercharging is doing you in.
Here’s what I see happening (and I’ve been guilty of this myself) – writers take on clients who are paying under what that writer needs to make in order to survive, the client either nitpicks to death the results or stalls payment for months (or both). What do writers in these situations do? The ones new to freelancing worry about asking for what’s owed them for fear of losing the relationship.
That’s a relationship that needs to be lost. Any client who doesn’t respect your time, skill, or professional position isn’t one worth keeping. But for some reason, there’s a disconnect between the writer and common sense. It’s fear. Fear of not eating.
How to overcome that fear and trepidation?
Know that you won’t starve. I know what you’re thinking. I thought it once, too. You can’t give up that client because it’s money to be made sitting right in front of you. This is a client who gives you work and who has agreed to pay you. Why cut bait on this client? Because you’re still not getting paid. Any client can give you work. The one you want to keep is the one who coughs up your fee without argument or threats involved.
Know that there will be other clients. Part of your fear of losing that client isn’t the fear that nothing better will come along – it’s the fear that nothing else will come along. However, that’s nonsense. This is not the only client out there who will work with you. You may not have located anyone else yet, but a little more time spent marketing and a lot less spent chasing a deadbeat and you’ll realize a lot more clients out there who will pay on time and are great to work with.
Know that you’re banking on a big question mark. Perhaps she paid you this time in three months with a lot of prodding from you. You assume that she sees your persistence as a good thing, that she’s been sufficiently embarrassed, and that next time will be easier. Ever have one of those dogs that just can’t be trained? You try and try to get them to stay off the sofa, but the minute you stop hounding them, they jump up and stretch out with no shame? Some clients can be like that. If you’re not constantly reminding them, hounding them, or threatening them for payment, they’re not going to remember. How do you know your non-paying client is like this? You don’t. And there’s the whole problem.
Know that you have no relationship worth keeping. I can’t stress this enough: If your client is underpaying, refusing to pay, avoiding payment, or accusing you of handing over a bad product at the same time you’re handing a final invoice with litigation notice, you have a client not worth keeping. Period. Relationships have to work for you, too. If the client is getting all the perks and you’re getting all the stress, ask yourself why exactly you need that in your life.
Writers, how did you overcome your fear? What helped you realize your worth?
When you're new, the last thing you want to face is rejection or someone saying No to you. I heard it plenty and I guess I got used to it. It doesn't break me.
The best part? I don't bend over backwards to please the client to get the No verdict overturned to a Yes on their terms. They made their decision and I'm moving on.
Take a risk and allow yourself to be rejected. It will only make you stronger.
Keep the faith! It's something every writer has to do; find new ways of staying positive and with a perspective. It's never easy, but this article should be a must-read for every time the head goes down.
Wendy, that's true. When we're first starting out, we fear rejection. Now I don't even notice it. Haven't we all tried to please to our own detriment sometimes? I remember my light-bulb moment. It was over this very point. I thought I had to kill myself to meet someone's unrealistic deadline. It was my husband who sounded the voice of reason – "And if you don't finish, what happens?"
Woke me up instantly.
Colin, great seeing you posting! Yep, keep the faith. Know you're good at what you do. Know there are people willing to pay you for your skills. Know that even if they say you suck, the only opinion on your skills that matters is your own. People will say all sorts of things to avoid payment. They'll also inflate to ridiculous proportions a few small errors in your copy. I had one or two clients who have come back with "multiple errors" – and one or two of them had actually corrected the copy to take perfectly GOOD copy and introduce their own errors. Some have claimed "several" problems that turned out to be one or two sentences in pages of copy.
You're the expert. That's why they hired you. You have to trust yourself to be one and to act like one.
Thanks for the link love, Lori. 🙂
I also remember the first time I quoted my real fee to a potential client and they didn't even blink in accepting it.
Of course, my 1st reaction was, darn, should have quoted higher. 🙂
You so nailed this, Lori, that it's all about the fear. In addition to Colin's, Keep the faith, I would add – Don't give up.
For most people, it takes a few years to reach that place where YOU don't blink at quoting appropriate fees – all the time – for every project. I think I just hit it towards the end of last year (my 3rd year freelancing) and I am now busier than I have ever been.
"…darn, I should have quotes higher."
Cathy, spoken like a true business person. LOL
It does take a while. While I say my fee with confidence, there's still a part of me waiting for the clients to react to it. They do, but it's no longer up to me to make them happy about it. I do what I can to help them afford me, but in the end the price is the price is the price…
Now, that is well said, Lori! 🙂
Yes, it's a little bit like dating – hang onto the crumbs, & you'll never get the loaf! I think when it comes to work (whether we are self employed, FT employed, or somewhere in between), we often tend to think in terms of a world of scarcity….."If I don't take this, I'll have nothing…..". Whereas in reality, when we take "this", all it does is prevent us from chasing "that". Same goes for dating too, LOL!
Part of growth is recognizing negative patterns and changing them. All of the above are negative patterns that inhibit your growth as a person, as writer, and as a professional writer.
The best test is to remove the $$ from the equation. How do you feel when you approach this client's project? Happy? Excited? With a sense of dread? Do you procrastinate?
If you feel negative whenever you're approaching a client's project, and you're not earning five figures a month or six figures annually from them, drop them. If it's a big money job, starting looking for another one immediately so that you can transition smoothly without a big financial hiccup.
I'm in the process of negotiating either a full change or an exit from a job that sounded good in the initial talks but is not within the perimeters agreed upon, and the offer to "throw me a little extra" doesn't cut it.
I like Devon's advice. I have one client that doesn't pay that well (or quickly), but I only take on assignments for them when I have a lull. Like now. I get excited about the topics, but I always procrastinate on one part of each assignment that is always the hardest.
I've developed a plan to facilitate swifter payments. This will be my first time trying it. If it doesn't work, then I won't work for them in the future. (The other coping strategy is that even when my only assignment is from them it's still a low priority project – yesterday I sent queries but only made 3 or 4 calls for th article.)
This client is in a specialty area I've wanted to break into for a long time, and I think I have a broad enough set of clips from them to move up the food chain (pun fully intended), so if my new strategy doesn't work I'll cut them loose. If they do pay within a reasonable time, I'll still consider taking on work from them during my lulls.
Devon makes a fantastic point about measuring your feelings sans money. I use the "phone ring response time" metric…if I see a caller ID that makes me cringe, groan inwardly, or flee the room screaming, I know that client isn't going to be part of my portfolio for long.
This is going to sound uncharacteristically touchy-feely for me, but I keep a bulletin board tacked with positive emails and handwritten notes that clients have sent me. When my confidence is shaken by the occasional idiot, it helps me to remember good stuff. To extend Nicky's dating analogy, "It's not me…it's you."
Nicky, there's the basis for all our bad decisions, right there! Good analogy. 🙂
Devon, excellent advice. I had one client who paid extremely well. Extremely. However, the amount of hassle involved negated the financial gain. I was teaching the client something he should have already known how to do. And he was getting ticked off because here's this writer telling a publisher what to do. It wasn't working for either of us, money or not.
Paula, I can't wait to hear if the new method works. Keep us posted!
Jake, your cynical side remains fully intact. LOL No worries. We all need a boost occasionally – even those of us with successful careers.
I had clients like that. It was a pleasure to finish their projects, for I knew I was no longer going to answer those calls or emails.
Love my response to the caller id as a way to know exactly how I feel about a client. And yes, some are not worth working with at any price, at least not by me.
Self-worth for me has been an ongoing learning… for example, I recently upped my coaching prices and I've gotten more work at the new price… tempting to up it again, except this feels right at least for the moment.
If you're afraid of submitting, find a way to submit. If you're afraid to charge what you know your worth at least charge more than you are right now… take it up in stages. I suspect you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Isn't that a good one, Anne? I'm the same way. If I groan when I see the number, it's not working for me. Luckily, that's not happened in a very long time.
Great advice. Stages. Find ways that don't push too far beyond the comfort zone. Excellent!
I'll let you in on another pep talk I do with myself – hey, I've been talking to myself a long time 🙂
Several times when I was writing my comment, I caught myself starting to say asked for my fee instead of quoted my fee. I have had to retrain my thought process from asking for X dollars and as you put it, Lori, the price is the price is the price.
This is all so true–everybody's comments!
We've all talked about it before. When you accept less, you feel less worthy, and clients believe it, too. And when clients don't respect you, they start dumping on you.
Lori, you are such a wise sage!
If I don't post again before you go, enjoy your well-earned vacation!
Great way to put it, Cathy. You "stated" your fees. What a shift in mindset, huh?
Gabriella, I'm glad you left the word "old" out of that. LOL