Ive finally learnt how to say no to clients - and its driving more business my way.

this is all about professionalism. one needs to train their clients to stay civil. you need to set your boundaries that is draw a line and they should respect that and comply. this is just something they have to abide by. if one does not do that then his or her personal life messes up. you end up having no family or personal time. it is not about not valuing your customers you still can provide them favors every now and then. but that is it. they need to know that there is a chance that you might just say no.

Hi gingerninjas, thank you for posting about this topic. I've had a similar experience with a client who wanted only to pay for 2 hours of work but got me into skype calls several times in the morning and afternoon. Hence I spend an additional 2 hours+ a day of unpaid time with this client.

Aside from this he gave me a lot of flack for asking a team member another question because according to him he answered it already. I asked the question again because I wanted a better answer and I got it from his team member.

After a few days of having a bad feeling and uncomfortable time working with this client, I ended the contract and did not charge the client for around 12 hours of completed work. Still, he was not appreciative of not being charged and posted a strong negative review about me.

But despite this negative review, I am glad I fired this client. What did I get for ending the contract? Two new clients who are decent and do not micro-manage my work as I freelance for them. Since I was less stressed for letting go of this client, I am able to think more clearly about my other projects.

Aside from saying no to clients---don't be afraid of getting a bad review from a bad client. People who appreciate quality work and who are in business, know that not all customers are good or decent.

It always better to draw aine somewhere. Like in few countries t
In the world the law is passed that after work hours bosses cannot contact employees I think same rule should be followed with clients as well. Set boundaries and then work around them this will mean more time on your hands and you can focus on other things rather than finishing a project in an unrealistic amount of time.
You need to have a work life balance and without it the joy of making money eventually dies down when you've got no time to share that with your loved ones

It's all about setting goals and objectives for the execution of your business. It means you take control of what you'll accept for work and the terms under which you'll operate. It's important that you hold to these parameters that you set. But once you make this move, you can do business on your own terms and never question why you're accepting a particular client.

Congratulations on your new found control.

Steve

Congratulations on achieving that control. You don't learn to say NO right away and it requires a lot of grunt work and countless sleepless nights to realize that you can avoid that by asking your client to be reasonable with you. Once you get that control, you definitely feel that you have enough time to play around with and manage different things.

I'm halfway there to achieve that freedom. Wish me luck

Cheers

You've made a huge breakthrough right there. It kind of sounded like people were taking advantage of you before.

And I think you'll find with this new demeanor you'll have more confidence in your business.

Bill

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I cant agree more with you, learning how to deal with clients is a essential part of this job, ive personally had to deal with a few disgusting clients that keep asking me for more without paying the right fees, or that tried to make me work for a lot of hours for 2 dollars per hour, crazy.

Fortunately, I learned to deal with them, and now I dont accept a project if I now the client will get hard on me.

This problem has less to do with the clients and more to do with how you respect yourself and your own time as a Freelancer. When you're just starting out and maybe doing it for extra money, you don't value your time as much, you're working more for the review and the relationship than maybe the dollar value at first and you don't mind jumping through a few hoops to keep everybody happy.

Then, you start reach the limits of your business in one way or another. Either you're already working all the hours you want to work and you don't want to work anymore or you have valuable clients that need your time and attention or you're looking for a way to improve your revenue by increasing your hourly rates slightly and prospecting for new projects, whatever the case is.

My point is basically that at some point you need to start valuing your own time properly and not letting other people determine what your time is worth and how much of it they can have. Recently when I was rebuilding my Freelance writing business after a hiatus, I took a job that was way too much work for way too little money because the employer added a bunch of requirements after I had already taken the project.

Because I was just starting out, I really needed the review and I needed the money, so I chose to suck it up and get it done, and even though it took forever and was generally a waste of time, I still made it happen. Ultimately, if you want people to respect your time, you need to set boundaries on what you're willing to do or not do. When you have enough clients, you'll find that you don't have enough time to deal with people that make your life miserable.

I had a client who I submitted one article to per week, he constantly gave me negative feedback, always edited my work, was bitter about this fact, wanted me on his asana so I had to sign up for and familiarize a whole different tool in order to work with him and ultimately didn't pay me enough for all of the added stuff I was dealing with just to have his business. I ended up terminating the relationship because he didn't pay me.

Nobody can ruin your day in this business unless you let them.

Good on you, I had a similar issue, well I also used to say yes to things I did not know much about when I was younger thinking it would be good to learn and do everything, then realized I became like a puppet and was working crazy hours without much return.
It took me a solid 6 to 8 months to change my behaviour, I was 23 at the time so I am really happy I had that experience.
It is really good you shared this here.