It’s Okay to Say No to Clients

Freelancing compared to working full-time allows you to be creative and you’ll have the freedom to work on your own schedule easily, but with this freedom, income can be inconsistent due to having to look for clients. When I started freelancing in my 3rd year of high school my client projects were mostly from family and friends and I didn’t really think too much about my rates. It was during my classes in my Personal College Curriculum that I was able to learn the fair rates a freelance video editor should be earning based on the difficulty of what the client is asking.

Although, the question I wanted to bring up and talk in depth about was, “Is it alright when the client says I can’t afford you right now and declines your services?”. I’ve had this happen to me a couple of times and I bet if you just started out you’ll for sure feel forced to believe that it’s okay to accept client projects that are lower than your original rate and just give the project a go signal because there are such few opportunities and leads out there, so you might as well just accept it. Well I’m here to tell you that it’s clearly okay to say no to clients.

At the start, whenever a project idea came up I was always saying YES. It’s because I liked the idea of having another project to do and the bonus was getting paid. At some point, all I started to think about when a project idea came up was “how much money was I going to earn from it?” And that to tell you honestly it was a driving point for me to do projects.

However, I came across this video by Chris Do, a teacher of mine on Social Media Marketing and Typography. He talks a lot about how to deal with clients and it’s important to desensitize yourself to numbers. Money has no power over us and that we can say no to it. When it comes to our own work, I learned that we need to be firm and stand up for what we do and create. Client’s usually look at the results of our work so when they give a lower rate than your original for this specific work you are doing, you can explain respectfully that there’s no other way to get there without doing these things and etc. if they can’t meet your original asking price. If you still can’t meet eye to eye with the asking price then it’s alright.

Another thing you can think about before saying yes to a client, is checking if the project they’re asking you to help them with, is something you will be proud of to put into your portfolio. At the start it won’t be easy, but you’ll need to remember your worth as a creative person since you’ll be the one putting your time and effort into the project. So before saying yes, answer these questions. Is this project worth my time and effort? Is this something I'll be proud to showcase to future clients? Does the rate they offer allow me to reach the results they are asking for?