Stoicism For Freelancers: Clients Are Beyond Your Control Too
Would be nice if you could ignore stoicism and just live, work, and create.
By Andy Strote From the new book How to Become a Successful Creative Freelancer. Coming soon to Amazon and other online retailers.
The stoics would say you are “not to be concerned about things that aren’t in your control.”
Many times, these “things” are people. Quite simply, you can’t control other people, including clients.
You can try to influence, coax, persuade, or motivate them, but in the end, clients are not in your control.
You may find it helpful to apply a stoic mindset to some of the people you’ll run across.
The Client Wants to Haggle, You Don’t
For example, you may have a client from a culture where you’re expected to haggle over the price of everything. So, they’ll want to negotiate with you, too.
You give them a fair estimate for a project, and they offer to pay you 50% of that. You may be offended by that. You’re not going to work for 50% of your standard rates.
You can try to convince them that what you’re asking is a reasonable price, but for them, your estimate is merely the start of a negotiation.
It’s doubtful that you’ll change their beliefs or worldview.
You have three options now:
You can haggle and work for less. You may try to make your initial estimate higher than usual to give yourself room to come down in price. Depending on the client, they may or may not recognize that tactic.
Or you could find a way to deliver a product that is acceptable to them and is still profitable for you. For example, when it comes to web design, rather than start a design with a blank page, you make simple and quick adjustments to an existing template and sell that.
Or you can walk away and find clients more aligned with your worldview and pricing range.
Regardless of how you proceed, it’s unlikely that you’ll change how they think about money.
The Client Doesn’t Follow the Payment Terms They Agreed To
Consider this: a new client agreed to pay you within 30 days of project completion. But now it’s 60 days, and they still haven’t paid.
Why not? Forgot? Don’t have the money?
Likely, it’s a different reason.
One ex-client always took 90 days to pay, even though he’d agreed to 30.
One day, he told me why he did this.
“Any money in my bank account earns interest. I keep it there for a while, then pay you.”
There was no way I would change how he thought about money. He was determined to earn his company those extra few dollars of interest.
You can try to influence people like this by offering early payment discounts. It might work, but ultimately, it’s up to them.
When you apply a stoic mindset, you realize you don’t have control of the situation.
The Client Has Poor Working Habits—Now What?
Some clients are habitually late with feedback. At the beginning of the project, you both agreed to a schedule, but now they’re missing their deadlines.
But somehow, they want you to make up for it. In other words, you’ll need to work long hours and weekends to hit the deadline.
If this is consistent behavior on their part, you’ll have a choice of working with them or not. It’s unlikely you’ll change them.
How about clients who treat you like a wrist? They want to tell you exactly what to do. You’re supposed to take their idea and “make it a bit better”.
They think you’re sprinkling magic fairy dust on a great idea while you know you’re putting lipstick on a pig.
Again, if that’s how they like to work, you can try to change it, but the decision isn’t yours.
In these cases, you must acknowledge the reality of the other person’s behavior.
So, you have two choices. Try to influence and adapt or leave them behind.
There’s An Alternative to Stoicism For Clients
Stoicism can help when you are confronted with annoying client behavior. Once you accept their behavior, you can make appropriate decisions.
The alternative is to find clients you don’t have to change. Sort it out early. Don’t engage with clients who keep pushing you into thinking about stoic solutions.
Look for red flags early. Pay attention to your gut. If the vibe is weird, listen and act accordingly (run far, far away).
Spend more time finding clients who see the world the way you do. You want clients where you each do your part and honor your commitments.
With the right people, you need a lot less stoicism.
Important: Don’t Let Yourself Off the Hook for Things You CAN Control
When we talk about stoicism, we look at how we deal with situations or people outside our control.
It’s critical to separate what we can’t control from what we can. Don’t default to the excuse you hear from children, “I couldn’t help it. It’s not my fault.”
Many things are well within your control, and it’s up to you to take appropriate action.
For example:
If you need to find more clients, that’s up to you. No situation or person is preventing you from getting more clients.
If you’re waiting forever to get paid (or are getting ghosted when it’s payment time), you can change your payment terms—100% upfront. If you can’t do that, change clients.
If you’re doing endless rounds of revisions without payment, you can change your Terms & Conditions. The client should know about extra costs before they ask for more changes.
There’s no stoicism required here. You need to identify the problems and create plans and schedules for completing the tasks.
Be clear on what’s in or out of your control. No excuses.
Thinking of Starting An Agency?
If you’re looking for tips on how to grow your business, you’ll want to read How to Start a Successful Creative Agency. It’s the essential business guide for graphic designers, copywriters, filmmakers, photographers, and programmers.
Buy Your Book Here
Over 300 pages and 23 chapters, available at Amazon (Paper & Kindle), Kobo (ebook), Apple Books (ebook), and Gumroad (PDF).
The book is packed with useful information to help creatives start and grow their business.
Genuine Value From a True Practitioner
From Twitter:
“Currently, halfway through reading “How to Start a Successful Creative Agency” by @StroteBook – so many pearls of wisdom so far. Genuine value from a true practitioner.”
Nick Wells
Want a Free Taste First?
Sure! Sign up in the footer below to get a free PDF of Chapter 14, Working With Clients.
This chapter covers essential areas such as Clients vs. Projects, Corporate Clients vs. Small Business Clients, How to Create an Opportunity Document, Benefits of Finding a Niche… and much more.
Questions? On Twitter, I’m @StroteBook. D.M.s are always open. Ask away.