Keep on keeping on….

July 9, 2007

I had a situation that every writer dreads recently. The relationship between a client and I disintegrated in a matter of days.  It hadn’t been an ideal working relationship, and we both had reasons to not want to continue working together. But what resulted was not what I wanted, or had expected. By the end of it, I wasn’t sure he was going to pay me the rest of what he owed, and I was in a low mood for a few days. I made my share of mistakes during the project (I had to adjust my due date), but his attitude toward me made me feel uncomfortable and untrusted.

The first project I did after this incident was a tough one. I second guessed every word I wrote, and made myself more than a little stressed in the meantime. But I worked through it, built up my confidence and am on a roll again.

No freelancer is immune to bad clients, but the beauty of freelancing is that you can choose to pick who you work with. Follow through on your commitments, but don’t stress too much over keeping a bad client. I could have bent over backwards for this one and tried to keep him, but I didn’t want to work with someone who asked for proof that medical words were spelled the way I had spelled them. Little things like this bogged down the work flow and made me feel like he thought I was an idiot.

Don’t let one person get you down. Learn the lesson that each situation has to offer and move onto the next project. There are plenty of clients out there for you to work with!

Posted in Client Relations