…she need not dress respectably, to misquote George Bernard Shaw, on the main reason for adopting writing as a profession.
Ah, clients. I love my clients. On the end of the phone, by email. The occasional meeting just so I know I still exist…when I do dress fairly respectably.
My clients are THE BEST. That’s to say, I am (almost always) appreciated for my work, I get paid – yaaay – and I very often garner repeat business. I’ve been working with some of my clients for years. And I do say ‘working with’ not ‘working for’ because that’s how I see it – as a partnership.
Client : A person who pays a professional person or organisation for services’, says Merriam-Webster (except they used a z in organisation, so, true to my British heritage as a copywriter, I corrected it). The definition of client does not, anywhere that I can see, include expecting far too much, far too quickly, for far too little recompense, with not even an acknowledgement that the work has been received, let alone the courtesy of a thank you. Just sayin’…
So here are some examples of client demands imposed on copywriters and web designers, some of whom are known to me, others came from that excellent website, Clients From Hell.
As a freelancer, especially at the beginning, it’s extremely hard to turn clients down but…
Honestly, life’s too short to put up with stuff like this:
“If you’re going to charge me 40$ an hour to make my website I would like to install a camera in your office so I’m 100% sure you don’t bill me for hours where you’re not working.”
“I don’t believe you can have taken 6 hours to do this work. You have single-handedly wiped out all my profits. In future, when you are working for me, you are to text me every hour and tell me what you have achieved in that time,” from a client who asked, at very short notice and out of office hours, for copywriting to be undertaken which involved extensive research, responding to 58 emails, multiple phone calls and a Skype conference, as well as the writing itself.
“Why are you so expensive? Don’t you understand that you are discouraging a new company from growing? I have to meet the other partners – we didn’t plan for this huge expense, ” from a client who was invoiced $300 for a logo and 20-page brand manual.
“I prefer the copy the length it was before you edited it. I don’t want to cut a single word,” from a client who had written the first draft of copy for a brochure – long, rambling, repetitive and ungrammatical – and hired a copywriter to edit it, as advised by his graphic designer. The graphic designer again told the client his copy was too long. “Never mind, we’ll make the font much smaller so it fits into your design.”
YES – OF COURSE clients can call the shots about how they represent their company, about the approved copy. It’s absolutely their choice, even if it doesn’t read well, look good or do the job for which it was intended. We can only offer advice.
That’s one thing. It’s entirely another thing to be exploited or treated with disrespect by your clients.
Honour yourself, I say. It’s taken me a very long time to get there, to the point where I’m able to say…
Thank you, my lovely clients, that it’s such a rare occurrence in my working life. You are STARS.
Of Night and Light