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Don’t Say “Yes” to that Freelance Client Until You’ve Read This

Brad Bartlett
4 min readJul 12, 2022

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Avoid nightmare client situations by doing your due diligence up front.

Photo by Medienstürmer on Unsplash

I recently had a conversation with a fellow freelance writer about our recent experiences in the trade.

The topic of client relationships came up, and soon we were sharing our favorite worst-client-from-hell stories. (We all have them, right?)

But then my friend said something that really struck a chord with me.

“The worst part about it is, I said ‘yes’ to that client in the first place.”

My friend is not alone in this. We’ve all been there. We’ve all said “yes” to clients who, in retrospect, we should have said “no” to.

Why do we do this? Freelancers are a notoriously independent bunch, and sometimes that independence can work against us.

We don’t like to think of ourselves as needing anyone’s approval, least of all a client’s.

So when a client comes to us with a project, our first instinct is often to just say yes.

The Risks of being an “Always Yes” Freelancer

But here’s the thing: Saying “yes” to every client is a recipe for disaster. You will end up overworked, underpaid, and burned out.

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Brad Bartlett
Brad Bartlett

Written by Brad Bartlett

Professional Freelance Copywriter. (www.bradleebartlett.co) Musings on #freelancing, #productivity, #self-development, and more!

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