Pro Copywriting Tips - Three

Copywriting professionals and free lancers of any sort for that matter, have to guard themselves against clients who waste their time and money or who just make it difficult to create a good life as a freelancer. After having coaching a few of my clients who are working as freelancers through some tough client situations, I've decided to share some insights about three types of "problem clients" and how to avoid working with them, this can save you a TON of time and money (not to mention stress). Here we go...

Problem Client #1: The Third Party Reviewer

Copywriters and freelancers often run into clients who involve more than one person in the review process for a project. In my experience, this is always a recipe for disaster. You might have heard the saying "Too many chefs spoil the stew..." or something like that. However, most often, the "stew" never gets finished. Most responsible clients will have a project manager who you will work with directly. This is the person you communicate with on a consistent basis and who provides you with feedback to keep the project on track.

However, as soon as another person becomes involved, you can bank on things getting slowed down or even brought to a halt. You're the expert, and there's no reason why the client needs more than one person reviewing your work while the project is progressing.

Problem Client #2: The Skeptic

Some clients will hire you as a freelance copywriter, but they won't put up a deposit or fund an escrow until they see some work done. Avoid these clients like poison. People have every right to be skeptical during the screening process when hiring freelancers, especially when screening potential copywriters. However, once the green light is given, the client needs to have enough faith in THEIR hiring decision to provide a good faith deposit or at least fund a lousy escrow account.

 If they refuse to give you at least some assurance that they intend on paying you, walk. Even if these clients end up paying, many times they take their sweet time in doing it, in spite of the fact that you busted your butt to meet their project deadline.

Problem Client #3: The Dreamer

The dreamer is the client who starts out all enthusiastic and has this enormous project that they want to hire you for, which most of the time never happens anyway. However, at times if you chase after these clients, you'll end up either being asked to "work on royalties" (which basically means for nothing since dreamers are never good marketers), or they'll have you start the project, but they'll get overwhelmed halfway through it and cancel it. Many times, they won't want to pay you and you just wasted a lot of your time.

If I had it my way, I would create an amusement park called "business land," where these people could play their game without creating problems for the serious entrepreneurs out there. Till then, stay away from these clients, even if you think that you "need the work." This will free up your time to find the clients who know what they want and are willing (and able) to play in the real world of business. 

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