Gabriella, I'm glad you left the word "old" out of that. LOL

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!

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.

Great advice. Stages. Find ways that don't push too far beyond the comfort zone. Excellent!

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.