On Freelancing and Clients 6
There’s been a lot of talk recently about clients and freelance work: who clients are, how we sometimes act, how we should act when working with them1, how we shouldn’t care how we act, and general talk. There seems to be a spike in the level of interest in writing about this topic, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to throw my experiences and thoughts on to the heap.
The Clients
Clients are the meat and bones of any freelance business, of course. They can be odd, they can think they’re superior, they can think they know more than you and push you around (but are still, oddly, paying you to do the work they “know more about”), or they can be the best clients you think a person can ever have. I’d venture a guess that 80-90% of all clients people work with are ones that fall into the latter category. The other 10-20% can be bears and make you question why you ever went into the business in the first place.
I feel every person in the freelance business needs to be burned by at least one client in their tenure as a freelancer, just for the learning experience. In my case, it came early. Very early. Before Milk Carton Designs, even2. This particular fellow was bossy, demanding, thought himself better, and didn’t give me enough time to do anything, at all3.
One particular insult of his I think I will always remember: “No wonder all web designers have bad reputations.” This stung, and it still does today; I learned from it, though, and I grew. Today, it serves as a reminder of how far I’ve come and how far I can go. It also serves as a warning to stay away from those who exhibit the same traits and demands, for the betterment of myself and my business.
The Freelancers (including me)
Freelancers can be just as varied as clients. We’re subject to our own personalities, too, coupled with the stresses from work and our personal lives. We can be overloaded and cranky, overworked and stressed out. We’re not faultless. We’re human, too.
Being self-employed as a freelancer is amazingly stressful. There’s no job security, no promised income at the end of the week. One month you could be living comfortably, with some nice, cushy, fat paychecks; the next month, nothing. You’ll have to excuse us from time to time if we seem harried.
Our lives are out there on the internet, one search query away. Most freelancers I know are amazingly transparent on the web, as am I. It doesn’t take much to find out where I live, where I hang out, who I associate with, my thoughts and opinions, or even what I look like. Do I find the need to censor myself for the sake of my business? Not at all. What I say and how I act doesn’t affect my skills as a developer or designer, and I don’t think it should be expected of us to censor ourselves. I, for one, would love to have a glimpse into who somebody is personally, before I hire them.
The Industry
There are three types of people working in this industry: the experienced, the fresh, and the know-nothings. Let me just say this to potential clients to any company: Your 12-year old nephew (in this case, a “know-nothing”) that happens to know a little HTML they picked up from MySpace and will do your site for $10 is not a proper substitute for a professional web designer. Experience, training, and a proven track record should always trump monetary concerns (within reason). You’ll find you’ll get a better product in the end.
With that in mind, this industry is saturated and very competitive. It’s hard to break into, and it’s hard to get your foot into the door. Success is very hard to obtain, but very fruitful once you do.
And when you do find success? Congratulations. You probably deserve it.
Now stop reading this and get back to work.
1 Where “we” is defined as freelance web designers, freelance web developers, and other freelance web professions, but may also refer to anyone who takes on clients for a living as any type of freelancer. ↑
2 What? You think I’m kidding when I say 7 years experience in the field? :) ↑
3 Some of this is to expected. It comes with working for other people; they’re bossy because they’re your boss, I can understand that. However, this fellow took these traits to a new extreme, one I haven’t seen or experienced since. All of this and it was pro bono work. ↑
