Remember, You’re A Professional Too
April 18, 2008 by Anne Wayman
Filed under Jobs
Most of the folks I ghostwrite for are professionals of one sort or another, and they are busy people. But then, so am I – both professional and busy. And I suspect most of you are too, or working to become so.
I bring this up because once again a major client of mine has changed a phone appointment. True, she only pushed it back some 30 minutes, but it’s a pattern, and the chances are she’ll be late for the new time too.
Although I’ve been accommodating, this time I pushed back. I agreed to the new time, but stated when the appointment would end. I let that ride when we set the original time, and shouldn’t have. I told myself the reason I hadn’t spoken it out loud when we originally set this up is it had been such a struggle to get any time and I was so relieved we were going to try it by phone before flying me half way across the country.
Sigh. I love this client and I love the book we’re doing, but it isn’t my book – it’s the client’s. I’m more than holding my end up and now it’s time for the client to do the same thing. I can be flexible without being run over… remind me of this from time-to-time, will you?
Write well and often,
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It seems an unwritten rule of the client-freelance writer relationship that the writer is always the one who has to be flexible which just about all writers resent. Isn’t our time as valuable as the clients?
absolutely, and I put my foot down, and guess what… it worked… will blog in more detail later
I have often wondered why it is that others who deem themselves “professional” like doctors, lawyers, real estate brokers, etc. demand they are treated as professions … demand they get paid a professional rate … but when they hire folks like us to assist them with their business or provide them with a service, they perceive that we are just fly by night folks.
Many folks believe that ‘freelance’ or self-employed equals non-professional. This is frustrating, very frustrating.
As Anne has done… it is up to us professionals – we need to stand up to our clients and teach them that Freelancers is spelled with a capital F because we are, most of us, professional and we, too, require professional treatment. We need to teach our clients how to treat us and others who they may hire hereafter.
Boundaries…got to set them, got to love them. There are some people who aren’t just respectful of our time or they are simply disorganized. Or both. Remind them from time to time and you should be able to get them to comply.
Yeah, Matt… it’s usually me that needs reminding… my clients, when I set boundaries, mostly smile and nod.