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Blog to support the book "Creatively Self-Employed: How Writers and Artists Deal with Career Ups and Downs" by Kristen Fischer

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Location: Point Pleasant, New Jersey, United States

30-something Jersey gal working as a freelance writer. Starbucks addict, beach-lover, kitty mother.

Creatively Self-Employed Website

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

I recently posted an article over at FreelanceSwitch.com about ditching clients. So many people are quick to say, "You freelance...just fire that client if you don't like him/her."

But anyone who is freelancing with the intention of building a positive name for themselves knows it's not that easy. Not even remotely.

You don't just quit when things get tough. If they get ugly that's another story. That's just my perspective.

I write about this because I don't have a full slate of golden clients. Some aren't always decisive about what they want. Some continuously haggle over prices. Some just don't know how to craft a polite email. It's easy to want to write people off when you have the power to. But sometimes, you have to "take it." (And yes, sometimes, you don't.) But I hear enough about cutting clients loose--I want to hear more about working through things. That's why I wrote my post.

I'm interested to hear from all you creative freelancers about when you draw the line and ditch a client, and when you decide to suck it up and deal. Why do you do what you do?


link | posted by Kristen at 9:13 AM |


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1 Comments:

Anonymous Jacqulynn commented at 9:09 AM~  

Questions, it all comes back to questions. When things become difficult with a client I ask myself a few questions to assess the situation.
What is this reaction I am having to this client?
Why am I reacting to this client?
Is there anything about me that could have contributed to my reaction?
Is there anything I could have done to contribute to my feelings of discomfort?
Is this something I can fix?

Once I go through some of these questions I can usually get to the bottom of my negative feelings about the situation and properly assess weather I can continue to properly service this person. If I can, then I just get over it and do my job. If not, then I explain that I don't think I can complete this job to her or his expectation and that he or she should look elsewhere.
I love your opening page on your website, falls inline with the Duct Tape Marketing I am taking right now. good job :-)

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