The Freelance Grab – A Cautionary Tale

Totally different topic today, but one that some of the more established freelancers have had to deal with.

Someone (a female) in my orbit is right now dealing with a grabber. The grabber in question has adjacent property to hers, and in every interaction over the last year has started with an ask. Each subsequent interaction has been predicated by the grabber’s overstepping his boundaries — literally. Mowing her lawn, trimming trees, mowing paths through her trees, and not one time has he asked for permission.

What he has asked for — repeatedly — is to buy this bit or that bit of her property. Each ask is met with a sound “no.” But that doesn’t stop him from continuing to ask.

What it has done is cost my connection money. At this point, she has called a surveyor, hired an attorney, and is about to formalize her upset with someone who simply will not respect her boundaries. The tipping point came yesterday when she was doing work on her property and realized he’d made improvements. Right over the boundary and onto her property. The clincher was when the grabber told her “Well, if those trees of yours get too tall, I’ll cut them down.”

The words “for you” would have made it only slightly better. But they weren’t included. This guy is pushing his way right into making decisions about what her property should look like.

Why is this relevant to freelancing?

Because those of us who are more established in the career have had to deal with this. It can start slowly — a question leads to more questions leads to the ask for work or the accusation that you’re not doing enough to help this person get up and running (and I know a few of you who have dealt with this). Or it can be a blindsided move, like the times in which I’ve had other freelancers alert me to one freelancer’s blog, which was a carbon copy of my posts — reworded and verbatim formatting. This freelancer is someone who sells other freelancers on how skilled she is, yet I know how many of her posts came from other freelancers, including me. This is also a freelancer who pushed heavily the notion that an article “mashup” — combining others’ original work into a “new” article — is perfectly fine. It isn’t. It’s plagiarism, and it’s plagiarism of more than one work.

From the slower, slyer attempts at pumping you for everything from a template on how to get clients to entire client lists (yes, too many of you have been asked to share your client lists), there are people out there who stop at nothing to overtake you.

The thing is, though, this isn’t a race. No one wins when another freelancer steals from you or tries to take shortcuts using your hard work. But they’re not the only ones.

Clients do it, too.

Show of hands (virtual hands, emojis, gifs) — how many of you have had a client push the boundaries? While the majority of clients are solid professionals, there are a few who are new to business or new to dealing with contractors or just simply used to getting what they want. Here are a few ways these types of clients have pushed the boundaries:

Ignoring the contract.

The client told me he didn’t think the case studies were any different than the press releases I was doing for him, so he’d be paying me the same low-assed rate I’d agreed to for the press releases. I referred him to the contract, got my final check, then fired him.

Asking for more work than was contracted.

Scope creep. It’s too easy for a client to not realize that each ask is money out of your pocket. It’s up to you to tell them. Do it on the first instance. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself six or more asks in wondering how to get out of it.

Changing the terms of the contract without notice.

A friend of mine just had this happen. The client added more work, lowered the agreed-upon rate, and sent a lackey to tell the writer. Thankfully, my friend is a veteran writer. She refused. The client was put on notice — stick with the contract terms or we’re going to have an issue.

Telling you what to charge.

Here’s the thing about freelancing — you’re not an employee. You’re a small business owner. As such, you set your own rates. Clients should not be telling you what you can charge. And yes, some of them do. I had one years ago who, upon hearing my rate, sucked in his breath and said “Ooo, you’re going to have to lower that rate.” My response: “Ooo, you’re going to have to raise yours to afford me.”

He got it. Asking to negotiate is not telling your contractor what they’re going to do. He realized that I could not tell him where his rates should be any more than he could tell me where mine should be. And yet some people just don’t get that. It’s okay for a would-be client to say “I can’t afford that” or “We didn’t budget that high.” That’s a starting point for negotiation. But anyone who comes into it thinking your rates are what they say they will be is already not your client.

Pretending not to see your invoices until the collection notice shows up.

In the 20 odd years I’ve been writing for a living, this has happened less often as I get better clientele. But recently, I did have a case in which the collection agency was on my to-do list for that day when the check finally arrived. But how many of us have sent invoice after invoice only to get a snippy response when we tack on that final notice and collection/litigation warning? Too many. That’s our money, writers. They have no right to hold back payment, especially if the complaints about your work come as you’re threatening collection (that’s an old trick, and it’s an attempt to dodge your payment — don’t fall for it).

Deciding not to use the work after all (and therefore, deciding your pay is also optional).

Wouldn’t it be great to call in a plumber to install a new bathroom, then decide “You know what? We decided one bathroom is enough, so we won’t be paying for it since we’re not using it.” Try selling that to the lawyers, huh?

The same goes for every client who has ever contracted work they decide later they probably won’t use. I had one client who bought eight articles. She ignored every email and invoice. I made the mistake of giving her a note saying “I wanted to give you a head’s up as my accountant is about to send this into collection.” She hauled out an attorney instantly (didn’t get my other emails though, eh?), and I settled for half of what she owed me — not because what I wrote was not what she’d asked for (and honey, I’ve heard that from the likes of you far too often to buy it), but because it was that or not get anything. And she knew it. And now, so does every writer in that specialty area (we talk).

Pushy people who don’t respect you are out there. Maybe you’ve been fortunate enough to have avoided a lot of the drama and headache over your freelance writing career — I hope so. But if you have to deal with either a content thief, an entitled writer who expects you to be their personal, unpaid coach, or a client who isn’t respecting your time and talent, it’s up to you to protect yourself.

Writers, in what way have you encountered someone who won’t respect your boundaries?
What other ways have you had to deal with clients — or other writers — pushing boundaries?