One common piece of freelance advice is “You have to get rid of lower paying clients and replace them with higher paying clients. It’s business – your clients aren’t your friends.”
I’ve always struggled with this.
I’ve always valued a low-stress relationship and I enjoy working with like-minded people – whether they have huge budgets or not. The thing is, some of these like-minded people who I genuinely enjoyed working for were some of my lowest paying jobs, especially in the beginning.
As I got better at pitching myself to companies I discovered that finding those higher paying jobs really wasn’t very difficult. So I started adding higher paying clients to my list – going from $20 for a 500 word blog post to $50 for a 500 hundred word blog post.
But I often found a disconnect working with the higher paying clients. There just wasn’t much of that personal element that I liked so much. For some reason, I just didn’t feel excited to work on their projects. (Not all, but most.)
So I kept all of the original people who had hired me. Half because I loved working with them and half because I felt a sense of attachment to them. They were the first people to give me a chance after all!
Then some awesome stuff started happening!
Why I’m Glad I Didn’t Take That Advice
Scenario # 1: One of the first few people I started writing for asked to me write for a second blog of his shortly after. Six months or so down the road he then offered me another job – to do some behind the scenes work for him.
I was beginning to get completely burnt out on writing (which is one of the reasons I rarely posted on this blog at that time) so this was a God-Send for me. I got to do all the other stuff I loved to do – behind the scenes work like editing, scheduling, and promoting. Plus, for the hours required, this job paid very well. And it’s likely not a job I would have gotten from a larger business.
I also got to help strategize for this job, which I’d say is definitely one of my stronger suits. If I would have went only for the big businesses in the beginning I would have never received this opportunity.
Scenario # 2: Then there was another blog I was writing for. Because I’m in the habit of going back over my blog posts an optimizing for SEO I was able to increase the amount of traffic this blog got by a good bit. The owners then offered a VA type of job – which again, I was completely thankful for.
Now that job just morphed again. I now get to manage a whole portfolio of blogs and even get my own VAs. I get to do what I do the best – strategize and delegate. I couldn’t be more pumped.
If I would’ve decided in the beginning that I was only going to write for high paying businesses with physical products I never would’ve ended up with either of these jobs. And truth be told these jobs are now paying more than what I’d get from a big business anyway. (You’ll see this reflected in my January income report. Decembers earnings, paid in January, posted at the beginning of February.)
Plus, I don’t have to write 24/7. I can now up the hours I work for the pure fact that it’s not all writing – which I’m sure you know writing for 40 hours per week takes a lot of brainpower. And coming up with that many blog post ideas? Incredibly taxing.
So I Did Something Crazy
Yep, so I did something crazy.
I dropped all of my clients except for the two above.
I decided that my new word is “Focus.” Instead of spreading myself out among a ton of different projects I’m going to work for the people who I enjoy working for the most. Those starter jobs I had turned into something amazing.
If I would have took the advice to always be replacing lower pay with higher pay right from the beginning I wouldn’t be where I’m at now.
I think you can probably tell, but I’m so excited for the future!
Congratulations Alexa! This is awesome news. Am proud of you and good job on trusting your gut and doing what works best for you. If you need a VA let me know. Check out my VA site: http://www.jacksonlmichelle.com Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks so much Michelle! I’m gonna go check out your site and I will definitely keep you in mind in the future 🙂
Sounds awesome Alexa. Good for you! Sounds like you are doing well 🙂
Thanks 🙂
For a newbie this is some really great advice. Keeping those relationships with the people who first gave you a chance also shows that you are of good character. As a rule of thumb we should never forget the people who helped us to get where we are in life. Thank you for sharing.
Yeah it’s hard not to WANT to work for those people who gave you chance. I’m really thankful that I had plenty of people there to help me when I first got started.
I received some similar thoughts from Cat as I started off freelancing. I have one staff writing gig that doesn’t pay super well but it’s steady money and low stress. It would be silly to dump thst to go off and hustle for big money that is more stressful and maybe even less exciting.
I value those low stress jobs much more than a semi-stressful job that pays twice as much. I’m glad everything worked out like it did.
This is great. Sometime is no about the money but about how you like it and enjoy it. I love working behind the scene myself and love seeing the results of my behind the scenes too. Thank you for sharing this, Alexa.
I think this sounds so exciting! Quality over quantity, right? I’m not nearly at this level when it comes to blogging, but in my day job I can relate. I would much rather work with people I respect and like for lower pay than accept a higher paying job that I loathe and detest!
Yes, exactly!!
Congratulations! It’s so great to see your business evolve.
Thanks, Jenna!
Thank you for posting this. I keep seeing that sentiment about dumping lower paying clients for higher paying ones and it doesn’t set well with me. I understand that sometimes people have to do things to maintain a business and make a living, but the tone with which it’s said is often degrading. It feels like using people for selfish ends and I can’t stand that! Money is important, but it isn’t everything.
I’m glad to hear your testimony of what happened when you didn’t follow that advice. It’s refreshing!
So true Alexa. I have kept two clients for years that were not my highest paying contracts but were super easy to work with and very reliable. I have watched higher-paying contracts come and go but these two have always been there and I can depend on the work.
This is great. I also observed that people who you started out small with are more generous in the end.