A large percentage of freelancing problems arise because of self-inflicted errors — shooting too low on project estimates, ignoring warning signs of a client-from-hell, overbooking ourselves into a cascade of concurrent deadlines. But sometimes bad things happen to good freelancers due to circumstances beyond our control. How you handle those setbacks is critical to your mental well-being as well as your business success.
Scenario #1: Your client doesn’t like the work you’ve presented. We’ve all had it happen — you think you’ve written a brilliant feature story, designed a knockout website, created a fantastic logo, brainstormed a clever ad campaign. You hit SEND with the utmost confidence, eager to hear how much the client loves it. And then you get the call: “Well, it’s not really what we were looking for.” After picking up the shattered pieces of your ego, what’s the next step? [Read more…]