What Should Your Freelance Writing Client Do?

I don’t remember the exact wording, but there’s a saying about how you can’t judge a person before you walked a mile in his shoes. The same theory should be applied to your clients. I often hear tales of difficult to please clients, only to learn there are two sides of every story.

Lets play a game called “What should your client do?” In this game I’ll throw out several scenarios and we can decide what you would do if you were this client – and if the client is really difficult, or if perhaps the writer is a bit disgruntled.

For the record, all of these are true situations and each time, the client was labeled as difficult. Let’s let the consensus decide.

You miss your deadlines each month. There’s always a good reason: your kids are sick, your great Aunt Martha is sick, your pet hamster is sick, your car died. After a while, your client isn’t really trusting you to meet your deadlines anymore. What should your client do?

Your writing isn’t exactly original. All your assignments are rehashed and rewritten examples of another writer’s work. It’s obvious you Google your topic and change a few of someone else’s words around to pass off as your own. Your client wants originality, not article spinning. What should your client do?

Your work requires heavy edits every single time. You’re not proofing before you turn in your work, and it shows. You don’t think it’s all that bad, but your client is having to either send your work back several times for revisions – or he has to pay his editor overtime to clean up your mistakes. This isn’t a one time scenario, it happens every time. What should your client do?

You bad mouth your client ever chance you get. On the forums, on Twitter, on comments at other blogs. After a Google search of his business, he found several of your disgruntled comments. What should your client do?

You can be a little difficult sometimes yourself. If your client contacts you to ask for a change, or if he edits your work,  you’re deeply offended. How dare he change your writing? Doesn’t he know you’re an arteeste? He’s just a business man, what would he know about good writing? You fight every change and revision tooth and nail and make sure to let your client know how you’re the writer and therefore you know what works best. What should your client do?

We all have had clients we don’t enjoy working for. Not liking a gig is no reason not to give it your all. However, when let go by a client, it’s best to turn it into something positive and chalk it up as a learning experience. Clients don’t fire out of the blue. Evaluate the situation, think about who is really at fault, and turn it into an opportunity to make things better.