Writers Worth: Getting More Client Respect

It’s been a nice, calm week. After going full steam for about four months, there’s been a break in the action. I managed to finish all but one project on my desk, and I’m waiting for a few more to arrive. What did I do with the time? Cleaned the desk, filed papers, figured more exactly my self-employment tax bill to date, wrote some poetry… surfed without guilt.

Another thing I did was go through my project files on OneDrive and refile them. I have a folder named Old Projects. I moved any folder that saw no activity in two years. Some clients you just know aren’t coming back. The need was a one-time thing, the project lead moved to a different company, the experience wasn’t stellar… it happens.

Sometimes, it happens because the client never quite gave you the time or respect you needed to get the job done.

I’ve been lucky. I’ve had bad experiences, but not many over the last five years. That was probably about the time I realized just how to get the same respect I gave.

Teach clients how to treat you.

That one move will change your freelance writing business. It really will.

Ask the freelancer who, instead of buckling under the “I found a cheaper rate from another freelancer” threat, wished that client all the best.

Ask the freelancer who said no to a project that came in two days before Christmas — due on January 2nd.

Ask the freelancer who finally said no to a Friday afternoon assignment with a Monday morning deadline.

Ask the freelancer who refused to include edits from a third, unknown party when the project was days from completion.

Every one of those moves, right there, helped those freelancers set appropriate boundaries. But they also set those freelancers apart as professionals. Those boundaries sent a message to clients —

I don’t accept this.

I can hear you now:

But Lori, I’m going to lose a client if I do that!

Personally? That would be the least of my concerns. If a client isn’t willing to bend a little, if they continue to have fires they expect me to put out immediately, I’m not really all that interested in continuing the relationship. Yes, things come up last minute and some clients really do need fast turnaround. It becomes a problem when all projects require fast turnaround.

It also becomes a problem when a client won’t respect my time off. Yes, I could well have finished all those projects years ago that happened to fall over Labor Day weekend. But I didn’t. I knew if I started, I would have a terrible time ever setting a boundary again.

They Don’t Own You

You work with them on their projects. You might even stretch it and say you work for them (though you actually work for yourself). What you aren’t? An employee. You aren’t the one who gets the directive and then has to hand it in to the boss in a day or two.

You’re a collaborator. That means the terms have to work for you, too. That means saying on a Friday afternoon, “Monday morning isn’t good for me. How is Wednesday for you?”

As for those third-party edits, I’d had it happen often enough to put language in my contracts that void the contract should some unnamed source show up without warning. Projects derail when well-meaning friends, family, and colleagues start thinking their high school English makes them an expert. Plus, any time you ask someone to read something over and give an opinion, guess what you’re going to get? Opinions. Everyone wants the story told their way.

Compromising Too Much Hurts

That’s because accepting a low rate just to get the gig gets you a lot of work for a small payout. Imagine this — you agree to write an entire website (20 pages) for $1,000.  Or… you counter with a rate that better matches the amount of work involved. Or… you say no thank you and find a client who is willing to pay what you charge, not what kind of bargain they can wrangle out of you.

Keeping your rates close to your ideal means you don’t waste time with referrals who come to you thinking you’re going to do the job for the same low rate. It means you’re not working twice as hard to make half as much money. It also means you’re not fishing from a stagnant pond of clients who don’t have the intention or the means to pay your rate. Ever.

You Weed Out the Problems

The one client I worked with for seven years doesn’t call anymore. Occasionally though, I will get an email and a small project from them. What I don’t get anymore? Those “need it yesterday” projects or those ones that are instantly wrong because they’ve misinterpreted the wishes of their boss yet again. That last one meant I was doubling my efforts and worse, looking like I was incompetent to the client. It was a no-win situation. My efforts to get the boss on the same phone call rarely worked, so I had to try interpreting what I thought the boss might actually be asking for, all the while trying to please people who expected it the way they’d described it. And then do it again to please the decision-maker.

Last time I worked with the client, I insisted that the boss be part of the conversation. Guess what? Nailed it on the first try. But when they didn’t want to include the boss on the next call, I was suddenly too busy to take the project. (I really was as I knew how much work was involved in writing it twice.)

You Respect Yourself More

There is so much more confidence in who you are and what you do when you stand up for yourself. Your client respects you (maybe a little more) and learns a bit about how you operate your business. I have clients who know that Fridays are my day off, so they’ll get in touch Monday through Thursday. They didn’t fuss or complain. Why? Because they’re people who understand I’m not an employee. I’m a contractor, and yes, we do get to set our own hours.

They respect me because I respect me. You can have that, too. Just teach clients how you’d like to be treated.

Writers, what won’t you accept? How do you convey that to your clients?
When did you turn a corner and start expecting more respect? What was the catalyst?