Being a freelancer isn’t easy, but neither is being a client.
If you’re an aspiring freelancer, you may find this statement baffling. "Wait, how could it be difficult to be a client?” you might now ask.
As you may know, if you’re an aspiring freelancer, getting clients is hard. Getting good clients is even harder. Regularly getting offers for well-paying gigs from well-paying clients with a professional appreciation for your craft is even harder. But what happens when you’re there? What happens when you have these clients?
Well, as your reputation grows, you start getting more offers than you can take on. And so you have to get picky. And whom do you pick? Probably the bigger-name clients that pay better and have a staff that already has experience working with freelancers.
Where does that leave the clients you reject? In a situation similar to the one you were in before you had attractive clients of your own. As a client, you might come across a good freelancer that you want to hire, only to never get a reply when you send him an email.
Thus you get a situation similar to that of the art market, in which a small exclusive group of people sell their work to another small exclusive group of people. In the art market, art deals can boost the reputations of both parties to the transaction. If a famous person buys a painting, this boosts the artist’s reputation, and if someone buys a painting from a famous artist, this boosts the buyer’s reputation.
A good client is also a client that isn’t sensitive about price. A good client is a big client who will more than make back what they paid for your work because their high visibility and large customer base, plus the fact that they choose high-quality freelancers such as you, will ensure a good return on investment over time.
If you’re a small fish, you can’t realistically expect to work with the big fish. As both a client and a freelancer, it’s therefore advisable to find the best possible partners you can in your current circumstances, and try to work with them in ways that are mutually beneficial to your growth and reputation.
As you negotiate as a small business, be prepared to pay a little more than you had in mind, because good freelancers don’t come cheap. As an aspiring freelancer, be prepared to charge a little less, because you’re not as good as you think.