A close relative of mine is a stickler for obligations. That’s good. And bad. See, if a doctor’s office hands her an appointment time, she accepts it, even if it means rearranging her entire life to make that appointment.
It never occurs to her to say “That won’t work. What other days do you have?”
Freelancers I know are like that, too. I was. Still am, to some degree. That’s a byproduct of our struggling like hell to make a living freelancing. In the beginning, we’re eager. Too eager. We want to please and get repeat business.
But five years, ten years, twenty years later, we’re still doing it.
That truth came screaming home to me yet again last year when I was too busy to relax. Being a pleaser when even a 10-hour day isn’t enough time just wasn’t going to wash.
So, I did something crazy.
I said no. A lot.
What happened next surprised me.
Nothing. Nothing happened. The world still spun. More to the point, the clients suggested other days, and I got the work in front of me done without compromising quality.
It shouldn’t have been any kind of surprise. I’ve done it before, and the world kept turning. But in each of us, there’s still a fragment of that starving writer buried in us. We’d work in our sleep to avoid turning down a sure thing.
But having been through another time in my past in which I’d booked 8 clients in the same month (and yes, the quality suffered), I knew my limit. I had already surpassed it, but was managing to chop away at the pile without losing the quality or missing the deadline. Lesson learned.
[bctt tweet=”#Freelancewriting Lesson of the Day: You can (& should) push back on client terms or requests. And your #freelance career will survive.” username=”LoriWidmer”]
That’s a lesson you can take to the bank.
Here are a few more times when “no” is the appropriate response:
Bad contract terms.
You ask for contracts, right? (If not, correct that error.) It takes reading just one contract to realize that some clients don’t necessarily write their own. Or if they do, they have an expensive legal team that tries pushing off liability onto anyone else. Terms that I have seen in contracts include:
- Requiring $2 million in professional liability coverage: You should have some PL insurance (Dinghy.com offers affordable options), but $2 million is excessive. This was a requirement I faced before PL insurance was readily available for freelancers. And it was pricey when you could find it, but no one at the time offered $2M.
- Accepting all liability: Bullshit. That liability is not yours. Yours ends when the accept your final draft. However, I did have one client try to get me to assume all liability occurring a year after that draft was delivered. So if Joe in marketing lifts copy from a competitor and puts it in their content, that’s on you. The only thing you as a freelancer should be liable for are mistakes, plagiarism that you introduced, things of that sort.
- Asking for more work/less pay than discussed: You really need to read your contract. I had one potential client try to push a larger project onto me. I’ve had another client slide in the rate near the end, and it was half what we’d agreed to. Push back. Frankly, any client who would attempt such sleight of hand isn’t a client you should associate with.
Your plate is too full.
Learn from my bad experiences — if you’re overworked already, taking on more isn’t going to mean more money. It could mean you tick off some clients and lose business. Stay within your bandwidth. Clients will stick around. They might even check in sooner with you. And you’ve just sent the message that yes, your skills are in demand and yes, you’re worth the price you charge. Which brings me to the next point: If you’re that busy, raise your price.
Your client is about to do something stupid.
Typos, bad puns, bad grammar, tactless messages of all sorts make it by marketing firms and clients and go on to embarrass and damage brands. Or worse, they borrow too heavily from another company — their logos, slogans, images, colors and words are all protected. If you see it, say something. Say it in writing as well as on the phone. They need to rethink or at least be alerted. You may not be able to get them to change direction, but they need to know.
You’re uncomfortable continuing.
If that client is insisting on going forward with something objectionable to you, remove yourself from their orbit. Tell them in email (always leave a trail) why you can no longer be part of the project. Spell it out. Leave no wiggle room for them to say, “But you were part of this, too.” I had to remove myself from one client years ago when his project became less about a business book and more about a way to win custody of his children. That’s a maelstrom no one wants to be part of, let alone a contract writer. When it feels off or is not something you like, leave.
The work just increased.
I suspect every writer has been caught in the “could you just add one more thing” trap. It starts with that case study. Then it’s “One more thing. Could you add a blurb to that?” Then it morphs to “Oh, one more thing — can you write up a short summary for the newsletter?” and soon it’s moved to “Can you rework this for our other client-facing newsletter?” And then it’s “If you could interview three more people and write this from their perspective…” all of this is on the same dime they’re paying you. That’s when “No” should be replaced by “I’m happy to — here’s my fee for the additional work.” Any time the scope of work you’ve agreed to grows extra legs, that’s a new project (yes, even extensions and “revisions” of the original project). I had a writer friend deliver an article to an editor, who then said, “I’d rather you’d written about this instead. Can you revise?” He was smart — he said, “Per your email, this is what you asked for. I can do the other article, but that’s a separate project.”
Writers, when do you say “no” or push back on a client or prospect?
What are some of the worst situations you’ve removed yourself from?