When a client returns a piece with revisions on it, how often do you challenge them?

I’m going to generalize here.  I know this won’t apply to every freelance writer, but from my experience, it applies to most.

When you first start out as a freelance writer, you try and do your utmost to please your clients and not annoy them in anyway.

Sure, this is something that you should be trying to do right throughout your career, but when you’re first starting out, you’re trying to keep your clients smiling constantly.

Usually, this means bending over backwards and jumping through hoops.

If they want a revision, you make it.

If they want a complete rewrite, you do it.

If they don’t contact you for a while, you don’t question it.

Simply put, you do whatever they want.

Naturally, this mentality stays with you to a certain degree as you develop as a freelance writer and although I’m now more forward if I don’t hear from a client when I’m due payment, for example, up until recently I very rarely questioned their comments.

Over the past few months, however, this mentality of ‘the customer always being right’ has slipped somewhat – but in a positive way.

It might have taken a while to get to this point, but I realised that I’m the one in the position of authority when it comes to the pieces I produce and although clients are more than welcome to provide comments on any writing I produce – and I’ll happily make amendments – the truth is that just because they have a comment or have made a point, it doesn’t necessarily make it a valid one.

And for most clients, they appreciate a proper response that doesn’t just say “points taken on board, revisions made”.

The perfect example of this happened in early October.  The agency I’m working with took on a new technology client and I submitted the first piece for approval.

I’d done my research, knew the style that the piece needed to be written in and made a few revisions before I sent it over for approval.

I got a reply the next day from the client saying that although they appreciated the work, they didn’t find it particularly suitable for x, y and z reasons and had attached an example of what they thought the piece should be like.

A few months ago, I’d have basically rolled over, agreed to rewrite the piece as they wanted and then sent it back over for approval.

This time, however, I decided to respond in a different way.  I knew that the piece I’d produced was of a good quality (OK, it may have needed a few adjustments due to a client’s knowledge and experience of their products and services, but nothing major) and the piece they’d sent over as an example was littered with mistakes – not in terms of spelling or grammar, but in terms of it being unsuitable for the client’s audience.

So I told them this.

I explained that I appreciated they’d taken the time to read through my piece, make comments that were useful and could be used for improvement and had also taken the time to produce an example of what they believed the piece would look like.

I went on to give an explanation of why the initial piece had been created in the way it had and why the piece they’d sent over wouldn’t have had the desired effect.

And their response?

They were extremely thankful that I’d offered my advice and input as I was the writer and they were the client looking for direction.

We found a middle ground, revised the initial piece and were then ready to publish.

When you’re a new freelance writer, it’s difficult to do anything that you think might jeopardize your relationship with a client.

However, it’s imperative to keep in mind that you are providing services to them.  They’re likely to want to make a few changes here and there, but you have to be willing to stand your ground and provide reasons why you’ve done certain things – and as long as you can give reasons that are tangible and backed up with proof or evidence, there’s no reason why the client should be anything other than happy.

Image: Jonathan D. Blundell

Once again I’m entering the Word Chef blog carnival. A couple of months ago I wrote about How To Encourage Your Prospects to Engage with You Online. This time my topic is How to Find and Connect with Your Ideal Customers.  I’m not going to pretend I’m a guru on client connection. I can only tell you what has worked for me.

Who Is Your Ideal Writing Client?

In order to find and connect with your ideal customers, you first have to have a good idea who they are. As a writer, there are several ways that you could think about this. For example, you could think back to the clients you most enjoyed working for. What was it that made that particular working relationship stand out for you? Perhaps you had a good rapport or maybe the client trusted your expertise and left you to get on with doing the best job you could.

Whatever it is, if you think about it for a while you will soon identify what made that client relationship stand out for you. Think about other great client relationships and find out what they have in common. Start making a list of the qualities that your ideal client will have. Dare to dream here — this is an ideal world we are talking about. My ideal client has a fun job for me to do in an area where I am an expert, offers my ideal pay rate or more, is a pleasure to work with and pays on time. What’s yours?

What Industry Appeals To You?

Another approach is to think of the business or industry you want to write about. That might be easier to identify than a dream client.  As a writer, you also have to be an excellent researcher and it’s time to put those research skills to use to find your ideal industry. Think of it as a game of hide and seek with the client of your dreams as the ultimate goal.

Start looking for the kinds of companies you want to be associated with, perhaps through the job boards or by doing a Google search for the terms which really get you excited. I love blogging jobs so I am always looking for companies that have something different to offer in this arena. To give another example which works for writers, you can do a search for sites which include the words “write for us” along with the keyword of the niche you’re interested in. That will help you to identify writing opportunities.

You’ve Identified Your Opportunity- Now What?

Once you’ve completed these steps then it’s time to connect. There are two things you need to do. First, your potential client will research you just as you researched the client. Make it easy by having your own piece of internet real estate.If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you already know what I’m going to say. You need a website. That is where you can present the information about yourself to answer clients’ questions before they ask them. Have this ready before you do the second part — that’s where you actually approach the client.

Approaching Your Client

It may surprise you to know that this part is not my greatest strength, though I get by. I am not a great salesperson and make no mistake, even though it’s subtle, your initial approach is about selling your services to the client. Your client wants to know how you can meet his or her needs – that’s the question you need to answer, both with your website and with your pitch.

How I Do It

Here’s my strategy – and it’s worked well for me in the past whenever I don’t already have an introduction or referral (which is how I get most of my business). I look at the potential client’s site, check on Google rankings, type of content and what the business is. Then I see how I could make a difference and prepare a bullet pointed list which I’ll use as a reference when we talk or email. Of course ,I don’t want to say that the client is doing it all wrong. That wouldn’t get the relationship off to a good start. But it doesn’t hurt to suggest improvements.

Create Your Job Description

Another way to do it is to put yourself in the client’s shoes and create a job description for the services he needs. Then write out a cover letter addressing those points.  That will show how you are right for that client.

Final Word

Finally, don’t forget that there’s more to connecting with clients than working with the single person you’re focusing on now. That person may work with others who might also hire you at some point. Never lose an opportunity to highlight your skills and services. One of most enduring clients was helping an old client of mine who was a friend of his. When that first job ended, he hired me on his own account – and I’ve been working for him for about four years.

Where do you find your ideal writing clients and how do you connect with them? I’d love to hear from you about what has worked for you.

Image: Nico Kaiser

How flexible are you when it comes to your freelance writing clients?

I’ve spoken before about how I like to think of myself as being a fairly laid back guy.

Like most other people, there are certain things that rile me, but most people I know would agree I’m a pretty calm and collected person – I just think that if you stop, think and take a breath, you’ll almost always come out with a better solution than if you were to react instantly in a not-so-positive way.

Generally speaking, this works well with clients.  I try to operate in a low-pressure environment, where I can talk openly to clients and vice versa and I like to think that being both flexible and open, clients can approach me with work knowing that I’ll be able to deliver it to their needs and on time, whether that’s within 24 hours or four weeks.

It’s become apparent in recent weeks, however, that being flexible as a freelance writer can in fact take more planning and preparation – and assertiveness – than I first realised.

I started working with a client a few months ago and I really do love working with them.  I’m heavily involved with the business and not only do I think the services they offer are ideal for their target market, but they’re on a topic I’m both interested and experienced in, making the work particularly enjoyable.

As with all of my clients, I’ve tried to be as flexible as I can possibly be and have dedicated more time to the client than they expect and have paid for (as a general rule, I don’t do this, as when you start offering free time, it can easily escalate, but like I said, I particularly love working with this client, so I don’t mind).

The issue is that my flexibility and openness is starting to be taken advantage of.  Albeit only in a small way, but taken advantage of nevertheless.

I’m not under any illusions that this is anyone’s fault other than my own, but it’s still not a particularly great feeling.

Don’t get me wrong, this client isn’t getting hours and hours of free work out of me.  The issue is based more around the fact that they expect a lot from the business, think I’m the answer to all of their problems and can deliver the results that they want within a matter of weeks.

Sure, it’s great when people think of you like that, but there gets to a point where you’re put on a pedestal that’s so high, one wrong step in any direction and you come crashing to the ground.

And it’s only a small point, but the one thing that gets to me most (which is something that a lot of clients do) is that if they send an e-mail, they expect a reply immediately.

I have to admit that I’ve become a bit lax in regards to e-mails recently, but expecting an instant reply to an e-mail is a personal bug bear.

I know what I’ve got to do in this situation and that’s to simply start to remove myself from the customer in a way that shows I’m still particularly interested, but unless they want to pay for more of my time, they need to understand I have other clients.

It’s not an easy task, though, especially when you’ve got such an interest in the business.

Nothing in life is free, though, right?

And isn’t there another phrase about how nice guys always finish last?!

How flexible are you as a freelance writer?  Do you find your level of flexibility brings with it primarily positive or negative points?

Image:  JKim1 (Flickr)

Are you ready for what happens when you are met with the unknown?

I’m not a particularly sporty person, nor am I overly aggressive.  I play pool and snooker on occasion, have a kick about with a football now and again and enjoy watching a range of different sports.

Like many guys, I also like to think I can handle myself should the need arise.

Lately, though, I’ve become fascinated with a type of combat known as Krav Maga.

Developed in Israel and taught to, amongst others, the country’s Special Forces, the idea behind Krav Maga is to give the person the ability to overcome an opponent in close quarter, hand-to-hand combat.

I’ve spent the last few days in particular researching Krav Maga and watching videos on YouTube, mainly sitting there in awe of the experts in it.

After a little research, I came across the three main principles of Krav Maga and realised that they, somewhat strangely, relate to freelance writing and how you can further your career as a freelance writer by abiding by the combat’s three main principles.

Threat Neutralization

Although you’re unlikely to have heard of this phrase in relation to freelance writing before, the idea here isn’t to think that you have to go out and neutralize every other writer who’s posing a threat to you in a violent way, but in a way that sees you stand out above the rest of the crowd.

Think of it from a client’s perspective.

They’re looking to hire a writer to produce some regular work and are looking at half a dozen writers, consisting of you offering to complete the work at the going rate and five other writers saying they’ll do the same job but on a considerably reduced rate to what you’re proposing.

How do you neutralize this threat from the other five writers?  If you simply leave it for the client to decide, chances are they’ll choose a cheaper writer.

Produce samples of your work.  Provide references.  Explain how the investment in quality writing will always prevail over cheaper content.

It may not work every time, but as with Krav Maga, if you’re prepared for a situation where you need to neutralize a threat, it will ensure that you have every chance of succeeding.

Simultaneous Defensive and Offensive Maneuvers

The ability to be able to act on both a defensive and offensive foot is imperative in most situations in life, whether that’s while facing an opponent when practicing Krav Maga, controlling an entire military army or in a corporate business environment and it’s exactly the same for freelance writing.

Being in charge of your career and income, you need to have a pro-active approach to gaining clients, working on new projects and continually developing yourself, pushing your career forward so that you don’t fall into a rut where you find it difficult to get out of.

Similarly, however, it’s important that you’re prepared for the times where things don’t go as planned, whether that’s clients failing to pay or what seems like a temporary saturation in the market, with next to no work being available.

It’s here when your defensive tactics come into play, with the basic theory being to dig in, hold tight and do what you can to survive until this temporary blip in your career progression passes.

Aggression

I’m not an aggressive person and I much prefer to live an easy life than have to get into any type of confrontation, but aggression and a pro-active approach are imperative to anyone who wants to succeed as a freelance writer.

Being aggressive doesn’t mean that you have to intimidate clients into giving you work, but more that you’re willing to fight – in the theoretical sense – for a project.

If you apply for freelance writing gigs that you see online, it’s extremely unlikely that you’ll be the only one applying and you need to be confident enough in your writing ability that you could hold your own against the other applicants and prove to the client that you’re the one they should be hiring.

The theology behind Krav Maga is to be able to survive in situations that you aren’t comfortable in and which don’t come naturally.  While you’re likely to have a certain place that you feel comfortable in when it comes to freelance writing, it’s always recommended that you’re striving to continually move forward, out of your comfort zone and it’s here where understanding these three techniques really proves to be useful.

Image:  geekcraft (Flickr)

How are you communicating with your writing clients? Are you using the best method? It’s no secret that I’m an email girl. I like email because it makes it easy to communicate with people in different time zones at a time that suits me.  But what do you do when email lets you down? Let me tell you a true story about something that happened to me a few weeks ago.

A client contacted me via LinkedIn. It was someone I’d met while working for someone else and he wanted to commission a couple of articles. Once we’d agreed terms and deadlines, we switched communication to email. The job was for a short and long article on a technical subject for a couple of trade publications. I completed the short one first, as agreed and sent it off to await feedback. I heard nothing. This was one case where no news was not good news, because I needed feedback before proceeding to the longer article.

Luckily, I was able to contact him via LinkedIn, which meant that I found out that for some reason he hadn’t received the email. It might have been because of a Gmail glitch or over-zealous spam filters at his end. I don’t know. What I do know is that it was useful to have another means of getting in touch, otherwise he might have thought that I’d disappeared, taking his deposit and giving nothing in return. That’s simply not good for business.

I also have – somewhere – a phone number for that client, so in a worst case scenario I could have called to speak to him or leave a message.

My point? It pays to have more than one way to get in touch with your clients.

But here’s another question. If you need to get in touch with a client urgently, is email always the best way? Recently I needed to send someone a message before they caught a plane. Since I knew the person didn’t have a Blackberry, I opted to send a text message (SMS) rather than email. The person got the message and was able to handle the job before catching the flight. That might not have happened if I had relied on email.

The lesson here is that you need to use the most appropriate method to communicate with your client – and that also applies when building a new client relationship. For example, even though I’m not a phone person, sometimes that’s the best way to communicate with a new client – as happened yesterday. Although I knew my client could brief me by email, I sensed that she would be more comfortable making the initial contact by phone – so I called her. She’s happy, I’m happy and we’ll be able to use email in future.

Have you got any communication tips or lessons to share? I’d love to hear them.

When you take a writing job what kind of briefs do you get from your clients? I believe that there are three main kinds:

The Speedo brief

Like their namesake, Speedo client briefs are skimpy – very short on detail. The client sketches a broad outline of what is needed and expects you to fill in the blanks. The problem with this kind of brief is that what you deliver is unlikely to match what the client needs or expects, especially if it’s the first time you are working with that client. After all, you may be an expert writer, but you’re not a mind reader.

Generally, clients who provide Speedo briefs only fully realize what they want when they don’t get it. That means that as writers, we can spend a lot of time revising work in order to deliver with the requirements of the hidden brief.

One way to avoid Speedo briefs is to have a client questionnaire which your clients fill out and to ask lots of questions to clarify the details before you start work.

The surf shorts brief

At the opposite end of the scale are what I call the surf shorts briefs. This is where the client provides a lot of information — way too much for you to sift through.

Clients who provide this kind of brief may be intensely finicky about every detail and can be difficult to work with, as they may not recognize your expertise as a writer. In these cases the client becomes a micromanager, making the writer into a paid serf who dots Is and crosses Ts.

Again, the client questionnaire can be a key tool in helping to identify what the client thinks is really important. To deal with this kind of brief, sketch out a structure based on what you understand as the main issues to be covered and get the client to approve it before you start work.

The middle ground?

For me the ideal client of brief falls somewhere between the brevity of the Speedo and of the voluminousness of the surf shorts. I know I’m stretching the analogy, but let’s call them boxers. Boxer briefs provide enough coverage of the essentials while still leaving something to the imagination – your imagination. For writers, it can’t get much better than that.

What are your thoughts on how clients can help you to do a better job for them?

(Photo credit: ziggiau)

How do you feel when you receive negative feedback?

I recently received some feedback from a client about how a piece of work I had submitted had a few typos and grammatical errors in it.

When I received the feedback, my first reaction was to be protective of my work and think that the feedback must have been wrong or I’d used a British word which wouldn’t have been understood properly by an American audience.

Then when I checked the piece and realised I had made some errors, I felt annoyed and to a certain extent, embarrassed.

But, in all honesty, I wasn’t overly surprised – I’ve been writing for 3 years now and this was the first piece of negative feedback I’ve received. I’ve produced work for a range of different clients in a variety of different styles and I’ve managed for over 3 years to not receive a piece of negative feedback.

That’s not to say I wasn’t angry, upset and embarrassed.  Plus, there was a bit of worry in there, too – as soon as I received the feedback, I started questioning my work in general and myself as a writer, worrying whether the mistake I’d made was going to have such a negative effect on my relationship with the client that they were going to stop hiring me as a writer.

Although the feedback hit me quite hard, I was surprised with myself at how I acted.

I was expecting to be a little irrational, but I managed to keep my head and put into practice the 3 steps I’d researched and put together for when a time like this occurred.

First, I let myself have a few minutes being annoyed and feeling down over the mistakes

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m a positive person.  When you get told you’ve made a mistake, though, you naturally feel annoyed and upset and although you can mask these feelings initially, they’re going to come out sooner or later, so just let them out straight away.

Don’t go spending days worrying about a typo or two, but allow the negative feelings to get out of your system before you do anything else.

I then looked at why I’d made the errors

Was it because I was busy and didn’t have time to check or edit properly?  Was I just being lazy and couldn’t be bothered to double check my work?  Or was it because editing isn’t my favourite part of being a freelance writer?

I came to the conclusion that it was a combination of the first and third reasons.  Things have been particularly hectic for me over the past 6 weeks and I think I let the things that I don’t particularly enjoy slip somewhat.

The final step I took was to look at how these mistakes could be prevented in the future

My initial reaction in this instance was to simply take more time proofing and editing.  It’s not something I particularly enjoy, but it’s part of being a writer and so I should dedicate more time to it.

However, I then considered hiring a professional editor to look through all of my work before I send it to clients.  I researched this a little more and realised that it’s a fantastic option and whilst I’m not going to hire a professional editor at the moment (I want to know that I can effectively edit my own work, rather than ignoring the fact it’s one of my weak points), it’s definitely something I’m going to look at in the future.

What’s more, as discussed in my recent post ‘Are You Writing In The Most Efficient Way Possible?‘, I’m going to stick with editing after writing each individual piece.  Proofing and editing a large batch of work at once might work for some, but it really doesn’t work for me.

I think what every writer has to realise is that they’re going to make mistakes at some point throughout their career. No matter how much you check your work or how proficient you become as a writer, chances are you’re going to make the occasional typo.

The point you have to remember is that you’re only human. Mistakes are never good and if you make them regularly, they’re going to have a detrimental effect on both you as a writer and your relationship with your clients.  But no one is going to hang you out to dry over the occasional misspelled word or grammatical mistake, no matter how much it may feel like they will at the time.

Do you find proofing and editing a difficult thing to do?  Have you ever been in a situation where making a mistake has had a big effect on your career?  Has poor proofing cost you client or have your excellent editing skills landed you a gig?

Image: Samat Jain (Flickr)

My writing business has changed a lot since I started freelancing. Then, I did lots of one-off jobs for a wide range of small clients, getting many of them through copywriting agencies and the occasional job board posting or ad. Now, I work for a few bigger clients, and many of those have come to me via word of mouth and referrals from other people who have been happy with my work.

One of the advantages of having this type of client is that it makes for a more stable and reliable income. I know that each month, unless something major happens, there’s a basic amount that will be coming in – and I can always increase my earnings by taking more work for a couple of clients who offer regular single item jobs (like resumes).

Of  course, that only works when the clients pay up on time. Most of them do, but then there are the others. I’ve been lucky enough not to get stiffed too many times in the last five years. That’s because I ask for a 50% deposit on all work for new clients and keep that up till we have established a relationship of trust. But it’s after that point that things can go wrong, especially if your client runs into financial difficulty.

Case Study One

One of the sites I blogged for a few years ago (I won’t say which one, as it’s now under new management and it wouldn’t be fair to the new owner) started off as a good gig, where the owner always paid in arrears, but on time, promptly on the first of every month. So when he was a couple of days late one month, I didn’t panic. I figured he was on vacation and would pay when he got back. After a while, though, so much time had passed that I realised that there had to be another reason. After several weeks he finally responded to my email, saying that he’d had a health problem (read ‘an addiction problem’) and had no money but would pay up when he got on his feet. I’m still waiting.  One of the problems I had in this case was that I didn’t have all his contact details. That was a $500 lesson. It’s something that’s now at the top of my client questionnaire.

Case Study Two

In the second case, I was writing for a publication that operated like a print magazine. In other words, you invoiced and got paid once you had delivered the articles. That’s the way it works, and they weren’t going to give a deposit to suit me, though they did make a one-off good faith payment at the start.

I feel a bit sorry for this client, actually, because the recession hit and the client’s advertising income (which basically funded the publication) dried up. Big companies moved from 30 to 90 day payment and the client’s ready cash disappeared. The only trouble was, the client still owed me money and tried to persuade me that I should hang in there a bit longer. I did the maths – had I waited another month, the client would have owed me double the amount, with even less prospect of paying me. So I got out, and the client has paid the debt in increments, though some is still owing. The lesson I’ve learned is to only work on that basis for a bigger, well established publication and to make sure it’s not a big part of my income.

My writing career is a constant learning experience and there’s nothing to make you learn like not getting paid. I have to be honest – the missing money isn’t hurting me financially, it’s just the principle of the thing. I did the work, I should get paid. The big lesson is that even when you do everything right in managing your career, random events can affect the bottom line.

The Lessons

1. Make sure you have full contact details for every client.

2. If you have clients who pay in arrears, make sure they don’t represent too big a chunk of your income – and be rigorous about collecting payment on time.

3. Know when it’s time to end the relationship and get out; don’t be sweet talked or pressured into continuing to deliver work you’re not getting paid for.

4. Remember to consider the effects of random happenings and chance events on your writing income.

Are you using a client questionnaire? I’ve been using one for a few months now and Taylor’s post on How To Please Your Client Every Single Time reminded me that I’d planned to tell you more about it. Like many writers, I’d been running my writing business by asking clients about their requirements, but I created this list of questions from scratch every time. That’s just not efficient. If you have to ask your new clients the same questions before you start a job, it makes much more sense to keep them all together in one place.

Researching Writing Client Questionnaires

That decided, I set off to find out what should be in my questionnaire. I found some great resources such as How To Extract The Facts with a Web Design Client Questionnaire on Freelance Switch. Although this is aimed at web designers, I thought it offered a lot of useful pointers for any freelance service provider. Section 1 of Smashing Magazines big list of useful web design checklists also provided some food for thought. Although I don’t remember seeing it at the time, Noupe’s tips on creating the perfect client questionnaire are also helpful. Those lists are intended to help you create your own questionnaire, so that’s just what I did, adding a couple other useful things I’d thought of or seen around.

My Writing Questionnaire

My questionnaire has four sections: contact information, company background, about the project and budget/finance. The first section is pretty straightforward, but includes questions on the client’s time zone (useful for all of us location independent people) and the best way to contact the client. In the background section, I ask clients to describe their company, how they differ from their competitors, how they want to be seen/found by customers and how they solve their customers’ problems.

Project Details

The biggest section deals with the project they are hiring me for. I ask about content and word count, where they plan to use the content, who they are trying to reach and what they want the content to do. I ask about tone, deadline, how the work should be delivered and who I should contact with queries. A key question is what the client thinks is most important about the project – this gives me a steer on what to emphasize. I also ask about how often the client needs to be updated on progress.

Finishing Touches

Finally, I ask about the client’s budget and how they plan to pay, with my payment terms and outline contract terms at the end. This means no new client has to ask about how to pay – the only question is where.

The questionnaire is just two pages and it has proved to be extremely useful. Not only do I get a lot of information about the current writing job, but I can also offer clients advice on other services that might help them to achieve their aims.

(Photo credit)

Getting out of a bad relationship is good for you but it’s not always easy and this applies to client relationships for freelance writers as well.  Just like breakups can be painful and agonizing (but necessary); the same can be said for client relationships.  I broke up with a client recently (actually they broke up with me but I was on the verge of doing the dumping) and it was something I expected but that didn’t make it any less painful of a breakup.  In fact, the split isn’t totally resolved yet.

Lori Widmer wrote a timely post today that struck a chord with me because just like her, I’ve been planning for the obvious and preparing to fill the gap because I’ve seen the writing on the wall and frankly, I wanted it to end but dreaded doing the dumping. In the end, it was the equivalent of being dumped on a Post-It for me and it messed with my productivity for the whole week (add to that a sick child as we’ve had a case of the sickies running through the house for the past few weeks and you’ve got one mucked up freelance writing work schedule). But I’ll get over it. Probably pretty fast. No post-breakup pints of ice cream necessary here!

Do You Need to Break Up with a Client?

Not all relationships are destined to work out. Not every client will be your “soul mate” in terms of a perfect ongoing working relationship. Thankfully you’re a freelancer so you’re free to end relationships if they aren’t working out. No lengthy and messy divorce is necessary!

Here are some signs that you need to break up — even if it’s painful to do so:

(Some of these applied to this situation for me and others have applied to previous relationship breakups)

1. Sickness outweighs health.  Do you love less and less about the client’s project(s) as time goes on? Do you dread it like you used to dread Sunday nights before you became a writer because they made you think about Monday morning back in cubicleland? That’s a sign you shouldn’t ignore.
2. Are you having to forsake all others? Does the money not justify the hassles when you break down the time and headaches vs. the income? Is this project impacting your ability to do other things?
3. Do you have a problem with the integrity or lack thereof of the project or people working on the project? Are there games and is there back-stabbing going on? Never do something you can’t feel good about (and don’t ignore your instinct) and if you can’t trust someone, don’t do business with them.
4. Are there lies and excuses about money and is someone trying to get to you drop your pricing after the relationship and terms have been established? Get your money from the next invoice and then don’t walk…run… before they ask you to do something else.
5. Are you treated like an employee (like plankton on the corporate food chain) but not paid like an employee?
6. Are people playing ‘the blame game’ and blaming the writer for their lack of research, a poor business model, or running a business with guesswork and getting indignant when things don’t come together?
7. Is it just not fun any more? When the love is dead, why prolong the inevitable?

Freelancing is often tough and unpredictable but the good thing about it is that at times a door closing means a better one opens. Every time I end a bad relationship, it all works out and so far I have always been better off after the fact —  even if it takes time to heal.  I haven’t had many bad breakups but every one that has happened has taught me something. The relief of knowing that I won’t have to dread the very next Monday morning can be reward enough.  Feel free to share some of your breakup stories and lessons learned… if they’re not still too raw and painful

(photo: www.sxc.hu/profile/spekulator)