Answering your questions: Negotiating with clients
Categories: Like talking but with more typing, Now I'm free(lancing)
Well, it took me a few weeks, but I think today I’m getting to the last of the topics posed when I asked for your burning questions last month.
Today’s topic comes from the lovely EmmaC, who asked:
I’d love to hear your thoughts on evaluating clients and negotiating with them - warning signs that you’re getting into a bad situation, negotiating with client expectations (ie, they think it should take 30 hours and you know it will take at least 50), when to negotiate and when to just turn a project down, etc.
This is something I think a lot of neophytes in particular are nervous about handling; isn’t the client always right? (The answer to that is NO, by the way.) There has to be a balance between sticking up for yourself and losing out to another freelancer who will agree to what you won’t. And figuring out where to strike that balance is tricky. I think the most important thing to remember is that you’re talking about a shifting target; how you approach any negotiation will depend on many factors, most of which vary from week to week and job to job.
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Today I’m heading back to
Last week,
I’ve been writing here at Work It, Mom! for coming up on three years. Can you believe that? The time has flown by—in a good way—and part of me feels like it was just yesterday that typed that first “Here is why you should hire me” email (with clammy palms) to one of my very first clients, close to five years ago.
So you know from my last post that part of what I’m doing this year is getting serious about diet and fitness; I’m pleased to report that so far it’s going really well. I owe part of my success to the fact that I am a consummate geek, and nothing gets me committed and organized like a good list.
The year is nearly done, and so it’s time for me to reflect on how my business did this year, and what I want to change for next year. There’s no law stating I have to do this, of course, but it’s a little exercise that I find goes well with writing checks to the IRS and weeping uncontrollably.
Oh what a difference a week makes.
I’ve got about a week and a half to go until Christmas, and I think I’m going to make it. It’s all going to be fine. I’m sure it is. It has to be, right? It will. Obviously.
I’m kind of having A Day. And given that it’s barely 10:00 a.m., that just seems… not good.
I think I mentioned a few weeks back that I was going to be starting a new project, soon, and that I was excited to tell y’all about it. We did a soft launch a few weeks ago, but as of today (December 1st) it’s supposedly ready for Prime Time: I am one of the bloggers behind a new weight loss challenge site,