Client issues | Words on the Page

What to Do When an Anchor Client Disappears

Posted on April 27, 2022April 26, 2022 by lwidmer

Let me start by saying how much I hate the term “anchor client.” Reason: There is no such thing as a sure thing. So, considering someone an anchor of your business is a seriously bad idea. When that anchor breaks away, you’re drifting. Another reason: You tend to moor yourself and your businesses to anchor…

What You Can (& Should) Say to a Freelance Client

Posted on April 14, 2022April 14, 2022 by lwidmer

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?”…

Your Freelance Client Magnet

Posted on April 8, 2022April 7, 2022 by lwidmer

What does a successful freelance writing career look like to you? Ask a hundred freelancers and you’ll probably get that many different answers. Success could be something as lofty as making enough to retire by age 50. It could be making enough to pay the bills and bank a little. Or it could be working…

When Freelance Clients Behave Badly

Posted on February 1, 2022January 31, 2022 by lwidmer

Sometimes you come up against someone who, for whatever reason, cannot help being an asshole. The person who tells you that your assigned article is not the one you should be writing, but this one is better, and proceeds to talk about their chosen topic. Or the person who blames you for their mistakes. Or the…

How to Vet that Freelance Gig

Posted on January 24, 2022January 19, 2022 by lwidmer

A friend of mine called me last week. She had an inquiry about a writing gig and, on the surface, that sucker sounded great. The dilemma — the client needed someone ASAP for a large project. My friend was already tied up with a big project and wondered if I had room on my calendar….

How To Increase Freelance Article Rates

Posted on January 19, 2022January 18, 2022 by lwidmer

I love it when someone shines a light on a truth and your own lightbulb comes on. That’s how it was for me in 2013 when Walt Kania (whose blog is pretty fabulous, by the way) wrote this guest post for Writers Worth that still resonates. What you charge is determined by one person —…

4 Ways to Reinforce Your Freelance Boundaries

Posted on November 29, 2021November 24, 2021 by lwidmer

It’s the holiday season. One down, several to go before January. Now is the time when client budgets are either spent or being spent rapidly. It’s also a time when clients make unusual requests. Some of those requests are boundary breakers. And it’s up to us writers to know when to say no. One example:…

Freelance Artist or Just Freelance?

Posted on October 5, 2021October 4, 2021 by lwidmer

I was talking with a writer chum yesterday about some reno work she’s having done. The contractor doing the job suggested a trim board that he said would cover a problem area and look great. Then she saw the piece of trim. Let’s just say the guy is better at repairing than planning. It’s also…

Clarifying Your Freelance Writing Project

Posted on September 15, 2021September 21, 2021 by lwidmer

I saw this tidbit in Michelle Garrett’s newsletter this week: Did you hear the mic drop right there? Or was that your head nodding wildly? I know for me, it was the moment I went “YES, thank you.” Because like you, like nearly every single freelancer who has ever worked for a client, I have…

A Freelance Decision You Don’t Want to Make (but should)

Posted on September 8, 2021September 7, 2021 by lwidmer

Something happened a while back that’s been sticking in my mind. It’s not one of those “Look what that nasty client did to me” events, either. It was subtler than that. If I hadn’t been paying attention, I wouldn’t have noticed. It was when the work outpaced the pay. The client was a fairly new…

Gabriella

September 8, 2021

Interesting, Lori. So true.

Just curious. What was the client’s response to your backing away politely? I think sometimes clients know they’re sucking your time and energy like vampires, and other times they have no clue why you wouldn’t be continuing with them.

Either way, it’s still adios. Haha.

1. lwidmer
  
  September 8, 2021
  
  They thanked me and wished me well. It was just a bad fit for me, and I think they realized it. I had to turn down assignments because I knew that accepting them meant I wouldn’t get something done or miss a deadline. Since I’d rather walk over hot coals than miss a deadline, the choice was easy.
  
  I did tell them why, and I did so cordially. I had no animosity toward this client. I simply couldn’t continue because of those things I mentioned and all my other commitments.
Paula Hendrickson

September 8, 2021

I’ve “fired” three clients. The first I’d worked with for years, but a new team of editors didn’t have a clue what they were doing. They would assign things they wouldn’t use for months (they paid on publication, or I wouldn’t have cared when the ran), and they butchered copy to the point that I wish I didn’t have a byline. The publisher didn’t respect the freelancers that created the content that his beloved salespeople used to draw in advertisers. The last straw was when I hadn’t been paid for an article 13 months after I turned it in and at least two months after it ran. I spent the last couple months hounding them for payment. Every time I called to speak with the accounting person I was told he was at lunch and he’d call when he got back. After two weeks of that, I told the receptionist, “That’s the longest lunch in history.” He called back that afternoon. One of the editors called me to lambast me for going behind his back (I’d asked him numerous times when I would be paid and he blew it off every time). By the end of the day the executive editor hand-delivered my check and I knew I never wanted to write for them again.

Around the same time, a marketing newsletter I frequently wrote for changed hands, and the pay was cut from 50-cents a word (this was in the late 90s) to 10-cents a word. The new editor asked me to write a 600-word piece (for $60) and cram in more sources than necessary. I told her “Good luck with that.”

Dropping two clients at the same time wasn’t easy, but it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. They sucked time and energy from me and I got little if anything in return. It wasn’t worth it.

The third was the chronic late-payer who, for three weeks, used “the flu” has an excuse not to pay my invoice. I finally told him that even school kids have to do homework when they’re out sick—he could sign a check from his sick bed or authorize one of his staffers to issue checks if he was truly out of commission. (Didn’t help that he posted photos of himself playing golf while he had “the flu.”) Again, he had no respect for freelancers. I really enjoyed the topics, but I can’t deal with such blatant disrespect. Or being lied to. Both are deal breakers.

That was another wise decision I have never regretted.

lwidmer

September 13, 2021

Oh Paula, I remember every one of those former clients of yours. I’d have done the same. The first one sounded like bad management and, you said it, lack of respect for freelancers. I would never lift a finger to the keyboard for someone like that again.

The second, cheap-assed people.

That last one, though. That was a liar. You made the best decision to not work for someone who lies. I mean, even school kids are better at it than that, seriously.