Sometimes it might seem like freelancing is all rainbows and unicorns, but I guarantee there will be some days spent pulling your hair out wondering why you talked yourself into working for yourself in the first place.

We’ve all been there – trust me.

These are the days for me where I have to deal with difficult clients, or chase payments, or quickly find another client to replace one who’s dropped off the radar.

Today I’m going to dig deeper into the first problem: difficult clients.

They’re impossible to avoid as freelancers, so it’s necessary to learn how to deal with them a) to keep your sanity intact, and b) to ensure you don’t get taken advantage of.

Since my freelancing days began, I’ve been fairly lucky in that I’ve only come face to face with a few difficult clients. Usually, I can spot them a mile off (from their job ads, or their relentless emails before they have even hired me), but sometimes they slip under the radar and it’s too late to backtrack.

It really can be a knock to your confidence when you have a client forcefully trying to drive down your prices, or contacting you at all hours of the day for revision after revision after revision.

So let’s get some systems in place, shall we?

Before we begin, grab your free checklist that guides you through what to do AFTER you land a client, which comes with a bonus 9 questions to ask clients when you start working with them!

How to Deal With Those Difficult Clients

1. The “All Day Contact” Client

If you’re on my email list, you got an email last week mysteriously titled “the client who kept calling at 9pm.”

(If you’re not on my email list, you really should get on it! You’ll get a little freebie, too).

This client religiously called me at the most inappropriate times – namely at around 9pm on a Friday when I had a beer in my hand and work was the last thing on my mind.

To begin with, I pandered to their needs and answered and, in time, I came to expect their call and started changing my social plans to fit in with them.

BIG RED FLAG, people.

After about a month of sacrificing my Friday evenings and pretty much every other minute of spare time I had (seriously, they had a knack for knowing when I’d checked out of work for the day), I decided enough was enough.

Something needed to be done – and, at this point, I didn’t care if I lost the client in the process.

How to Deal With an “All Day Contact” Client:

So I crafted an email that put some boundaries in place.

Within the email, I told them my office hours were between 9-5am GMT, and that I’d reply to any emails sent after 5pm on Friday on Monday morning.

I went on to further explain how the project would run smoother if we could keep contact down to 1-2 times a week with all information included in 1-2 emails (to save time searching through threads).

Guess what? It worked. The client didn’t ditch me. Instead, they responded saying they only called at 9pm on a Friday because I answered then – they thought it was a good time to call me.

You can always take this one step further and add a clause into your contract that covers these eventualities. Since this incident, I’ve added a little line that clearly states what my office hours are.

2. The “Never-Satisfied” Client

This is the client who always wants a bit more from you. What you do for them is never quite enough, and they’ll be sure to tell you this time and time again.

As an example, I had a client a couple of months ago who assigned me a long-form piece to write. I told them my pricing and that I’d offer them 2 edits within the package, which they gladly accepted.

So I started work on the piece and submitted the first draft. For the most part, they loved it. They liked the tone, the information I’d relayed, and the images I’d attached. There were a few minor edits, like moving paragraphs around and adding more detail to one section.

I made the changes and sent in the second draft, thinking that it was pretty close to perfection at this point.

But then they emailed me back asking me to change the piece entirely. They wanted the focus changed, different examples used, and basically wanted me to write a new article from scratch – after they said they’d been happy with the first draft.

Needless to say, I was like “whaaaat?” and then “Absolutely not!”.

Of course, I didn’t say this to them.

How to Deal With a Never-Satisfied Client

Instead, I sent them a copy of their revisions for the first draft and highlighted how I’d reworked them into what they wanted. I then clearly stated that if they wanted a new piece entirely (which they did), we’d have to treat it like a new project entirely.

Their response? “Okay, the first piece was fine.”

My advice to you is to clearly state what the project includes. Put this in your contract AND lay it out in an email for them, including how many revisions or changes are included.

3. The “Penny-Pinching” Client

Penny pinchers are one of the most common types of difficult clients you’ll encounter in your freelancing life. They’re everywhere.

They’re the ones who’ll come back to your prices saying things like, “Oh, we’ve had an offer for less than that. Can you do it for the lower price instead?” or “That’s out of my budget, what’s the cheapest package you offer?”

From my experience, these are the clients who are most difficult to work with because they don’t see the value in your work (if they did, they’d be happy to pay your asking price).

I understand that many clients have their bosses looming over their heads with a strict budget, but for the others? It’s just a case of seeing how much they can get out of you for as little as possible.

How to Deal With a Penny-Pinching Client

It can be tempting to take the lower offer because some work is better than no work, right? But this can actually be detrimental to your business.

If you start lowering your prices, the client will immediately think you’re not confident in your work or that you don’t think your work is worth that much, so why should they?

Firstly, stand your ground. When I’ve done this I’ve been shocked by the receptiveness of some clients. They’ll accept my offer because I’ve remained strong and shown that my work is valuable.

But if you’re scared of losing that client? Try exchanging things in lieu of the lower price.

For example, a client wants you to write a 1,000-word piece for $100, but you charge $150 for that amount of writing. Instead of refusing or giving in, start negotiating: “I can write 500 words for $100”.

4. The “AWOL” Client

Again, if you’re on my email list (get on it here if you’re not!), you’ll have received an email a couple of weeks ago where I had a little rant about the most frustrating thing we face as freelancers: the disappearing client.

This happens a lot, and it’s important not to take it personally.

It’s essentially when the client loves your pitch, accepts your proposal, and assigns you the first project. And then they disappear off the face of the earth.

You send email after email, but don’t get a single sausage of a response.

Now, it’s probably not because the client has changed their mind and gone right off you. It’s probably because they’re focusing on another project, they’re on holiday, or maybe they’ve even left the company, but it’s still damn frustrating.

How to Deal With an AWOL Client

Firstly, don’t take it personally. 99% of the time it has nothing to do with you and your skills.

Secondly, follow up. Send an email a couple of days after the initial contact, then another one a week later, then another one two weeks later. If they haven’t got back to you after that, leave it and move on.

Sometimes, the AWOL client will come back a month later out of nowhere and ask for the work to be done immediately. So it’s worth having a clause in your contract that addresses how the project will be paused until they get back in touch, and then the deadline will be extended accordingly.

5. The “Indecisive” Client

This is the client who doesn’t really know what they want, but they hope you do. They have very little information to give you about the project, and instead ask you to “work your magic”, or something to that effect.

Great, you might think. I’m allowed to get creative on this one!

Wrong.

Usually, this client does know what they want – they just don’t know it until you submit your creative project. Which is definitely not what they want.

How to Deal With an Indecisive Client

This might just be the trickiest of difficult clients to deal with because it’s like getting blood from a stone.

To avoid it, you can add an in-depth questionnaire to your on-boarding process that asks revealing questions. Think things like: “which of your competitors’ sites do you like the most?” and “who is your favourite blogger out there.” These questions, for example, will give you an idea of the voice they like and the style they’re looking for.

Alternatively, you can send them a sample of the work before you go ahead and complete the full project.

6. The “Time-Lord” Client

Oh yeah, you gotta love this client. These are the ones who think they know how to do your job better than you.

“Really? But I could easily write 1,000 words in less than an hour.”

Yes, but that doesn’t account for research and, anyway, we’re not focusing on time here, we’re focusing on value.

They hired you for your knowledge and expertise, not for how quickly you can write 1,000 words (if they did, you want to get outta there quickly).

How to Deal With a Time-Lord Client

Lay out exactly why it’ll take you longer than an hour to write 1,000 words. Clearly state the effort that goes into a project and re-iterate why it is they hired you – surely if they could do it better than you, they’d be doing it themselves?

Difficult clients are everywhere, but luckily they are outnumbered by wonderful clients who are easy to work with. That being said, it’s worth arming yourself with systems to put in place if you do come across any difficult clients, just to ensure you don’t drive yourself crazy.

Your turn!

Have you experienced any of these types of difficult clients? How did you deal with them?