Just Say “No”
Posted on 03 June 2010
One of the things that frustrates freelancers and small business people, is clients who are a hassle or who pay late or who ask for some super special deal and promise to “make it up to you on the next job.” When you’re hungry you look for jobs and will do just about anything for very little money. This concept is amazingly foreign to lots of folks (it’s hard for me sometimes) but when you weigh the real benefits of doing a job, not just the possible benefits, if the real value to you is small or questionable, turn down the work. No need to be rude. Just apologize and let the person know that you’re really busy currently and you just can’t afford to take on that particular project.
You might just be surprised at what happens next. It will do great things for your confidence. It will keep you from wasting your time on jobs that devour your time and energy. It will keep you from working on projects that put you in a bad mood because the whole time you’re thinking, ‘this just isn’t worth it!’ And they might even come back to you with a counter offer to make it worth your while. Either way, sometimes a simple “no” is the best course of action.
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4 responses to Just Say “No”
I have my share of clients who have a thing for non payment. One in particular who is an ex-coworker, he sent me an email the other day to make an update on his website. I haven’t said NO yet I just haven’t gotten around to answering his email. And he still owes me money. I have to agree it is tough to say NO, but I am certainly going to learn how!
-Bob
Sound advice Larry.
I guess if times are hard and little work is coming in, it’s very tempting to take anything that comes in but I’m a firm believer that once you accept the lower prices then it’s a downward spiral.
Glyn
One of the hardest lessons to learn, but ABSOLUTELY true. If you put a lesser value (or worse yet, no value)on your work/time, don’t be surprised when everyone else does the same.
I have two clients in sports photo/information. One was from on the other side of the state and was up front with me and said “just give me all of what you got and I’ll pay you $XXX’s every time because I can’t send a photographer to away games”. And I do. Sometimes there’s not many photos to send and sometimes it’s a lot but I always got paid the same and believe it or not, most of my work was published and he was voted “Sports director….” of the Year for the state. I like to think his web site looks very good with my photos and maybe I had something to do with him getting that award.
My second client is a charity case who always says “send me photos for the web site” while walking by me. I’m shooting for a different department, who get first picks. The charity case has a lot of experience in newspaper work(with awards) but says they don’t pay for photos. They pays other photographers who have the contract with the institution but he can’t pay me even though I might be the only one shooting an event. His web site will NOT be winning any awards with the quality of the photo work he posts, which, very few are mine, because, if you don’t want to pay me it’s like saying “NO” to me.
I don’t think anyone in this business REALLY likes to say “NO” or have “NO” said to them, but I usually find a way around it by sometimes saying “If I can find time…”. Sometimes this loosens the money end of the deal and things get sweeter. I might want to say “NO” in the beginning but big money always says “YES”.