Bad Behavior – How Freelance Writers Sabotage Their Businesses

When freelance medical writers lament about their lack of work and limited marketing opportunities, I probe a little further. I typically find they are driving away clients by engaging in bad behavior that makes them unappealing to prospective customers. Here’s my top 10 list of ways writers sabotage their own success.
Failing to meet deadlines. In my opinion, this is the #1 reason clients won’t give you repeat work.
Billing your client for more than the agreed-upon fee. If you failed to estimate the project correctly, then it’s your fault and you will need to eat the extra charges. However, if the scope of the project changed dramatically from the original estimate, you should have discussed these changes in scope immediately with your client and negotiated a different fee. In either instance, it is never appropriate to invoice your clients for more than they originally agreed upon.
Charging too little for a project. Customers believe they get what they pay for. If you charge well under the going rate, your clients could perceive your end product as inferior.
Avoiding clients’ phone calls. Your clients are purchasing your time. Be accessible to them.
Delivering a project riddled with grammatical and spelling errors. Your word-processing program comes with spelling and grammar checks. Use them!
Missing the target message and target audience. You did ask your client to clarify the key message and target audience before you started writing, didn’t you?
Being inflexible. Clients expect you to be flexible even when they aren’t. And nothing turns off a client like you whining about it.
Making excuses for inaccurate or inferior work. It’s your responsibility to see that you have everything at your fingertips to complete the project as expected. Before beginning the project, talk to the client and identify what input and resources you’ll need from them. And speak up immediately if they fail to provide them.
Asking too many questions. This may seem contrary to the previous item, but believe it or not, clients get turned off when writers ask so many questions they seem unable to move forward with the project. Don’t develop a case of analysis paralysis. Just DO IT!
Complaining about making revisions. Like death and taxes, revisions to everything you write are a sure thing. Expect your client to ask you to make multiple revisions and make them with a smile on your face. If you’re doing a good job of including revision drafts in your estimates, chances are you’ll be happy to make revisions because you’re getting paid for them.