Designer Paul Rand's Client Philosophy Explained by Steve Jobs

Something on Twitter pointing to some blog led me to this 1993 interview with then NeXT CEO Steve Jobs (between stints at Apple):



He's talking about working with a famous graphic designer, Paul Rand. Here's how he describes Rand's philosophy about getting paid for his work:

He had very clear conclusions about what the relationship meant to both parties and how it should be conducted. For example, I asked him if he would come up with a few options, and he said, "No, I will solve your problem for you and you will pay me. And you don't have to use the solution. If you want options, go talk to other people. But I'll solve your problem for you the best way I know how and you use it or not -- that's up to you, you're the client -- but you pay me." And there was a clarity about the relationship that was refreshing.

8 Points to Smarter Client Contracts

A friend and colleague recently asked me if I had a contract template that I used for clients. I said that I didn't because my contracts are generally heavily tailored to the specifics of an engagement. However, I was able to point to seven different clauses that I like to include to protect myself. Here they are, plus an eight that my publication and IP lawyer, Anthony Elia, had suggested for future use as I was suing an ex-client:

1. Whether a work-made-for-hire contract or not, no rights should transfer until you get the final payment for the job. If the assignment consists of multiple parts and the client pushes back, you might consider transferring rights to parts as payment for them is completed, if you can separate them out. But if a client balks completely on such an arrangement, I walk. If they're not willing to say that they can only use material if I'm completely paid, then they're saying that they're not interested in upholding their end of the deal. I have better ways to spend my time.
2. I charge late fees for payment in arrears. Again, this should be a non-negotiable. Companies want to charge me late fees if I don't pay on time, and I don't see why I should underwrite someone else's financing.
3. Have a clean definition of the work and then an hourly fee for requests beyond that definition. If the client cannot agree to a clear work specification, then it is going to ask for more and more to be done for the same fee, either trying to push the boundaries to get more for its money or because it is confused and inefficient. In neither case am I willing to give something away for nothing in return. That's not to say that I don't do favors for regular clients. I do. But that's with an ongoing relationship where I get plenty of return for my investment.
4. Give a hard deadline for reviews, with drafts past that date getting contractual automatic acceptance. Generally, payment in corporate assignments keys on acceptance of parts of a project. You do not want to be waiting for money because someone or other won't bother to look at what you've done. This protects you against that, largely by acting as a goad to get the client to do the reviews it owes you. Make the deadlines reasonable, but not too long. I find that two weeks max is a good timetable for getting a review done.
5. You are the service provider, so make sure that any legal disputes, whether state or federal court, are in your home jurisdiction. You don't want to go to another state to sue for money owed you. Similarly, get your state's laws as the ones governing the contract. If the client won't go for that, then eliminate the requirement completely. Don't allow them to insist that you agree to jurisdiction in their area, because, frankly speaking, if legal issues come up, you're most likely to be the plaintiff, not the defendant.
6. Explicitly address expenses and any other item that might reduce your income. Don't expect to work such things out after the fact.
7. Make deadlines offset from when you actually get the expected payments. So if the first should be in a month, make it a month after you have the signed contract and deposit. Before you've signed the contract is when you have maximum leverage in negotiation. Once you start work, your leverage decreases exponentially with the time you've put in.
8. The final point is to try to include a clause that has the loser in a legal action responsible for the legal costs of the winner. I had thought this a danger, but my lawyer pointed out that the chances were overwhelmingly likely that I'd be the one having to take action, and getting costs covered if you have a good case becomes a goad to getting people to settle

Lessons from Suing an Ex-Client

For 15 years that I have been working for myself, I've never had to sue a client to get paid ... until recently. It was for a large amount of money that was beyond the scope of small claims and I had tried for months to get the company to even address the overdue invoices but to no avail. So I took them to court and won. Here are some lessons I learned that might help you if you find yourself in a similar situation:

• Document everything -- You want complete, overwhelming, and even crushing proof that you are owed money. That involves a) showing that there was an agreement for you to provide services to the ex for a given amount, b) showing that you delivered as you were supposed to, and c) that you had duly invoiced them and given them a chance to square things. This is easier than you might think. A signed contract is preferred. But in any case, you want all emails sent back and forth, as well as notes you may have taken at discussions. The emails are something you can export from your email reader. It helped that I always store every email from a client in either a client folder or project-related folders, as makes the most sense. Digging up the emails that I had sent required a bit of hunting in the Sent folder. I sorted them by recipient and then looked up the various people to whom I had sent emails. I checked for every name that had sent me an email, as well. Total time to ready things for my lawyer: about 30 minutes.


• Demand letter -- You want to have given a reasonable amount of time trying to get paid. That might be a few months. At the end of this period, you send a demand letter via certified mail, return receipt requested, so you have proof of delivery. (Actually, I sent mine via UPS ground and had the delivery receipt.) IN the letter, you lay out the entire chronology of what happened, including all efforts you made to try and resolve the issue and get paid, as well as every promise to pay that they made. What you ideally want is proof that they had accepted your work and had not disputed that you had done your part. If there has been any dispute, you should try to resolve it so you leave them no leg to stand on.


• Get a litigator -- Not all lawyers are litigators. You want one that is, because he or she will know all kinds of tricks to move things along. In my case, we filed suit, they tried playing innocent, but never answered the suit by filing a response. That put them into a corner. Then they asked for a settlement agreement. After back and forth via email (because you have written proof then), we agreed to terms, and then they didn't sign the agreement and didn't pay when they said they would. My lawyer was able to go to the courthouse and, after a mandatory three week wait, get the clerk to enter the settlement agreement. They were now stuck. We could have gone for a default, but that would have taken longer. It helps when your lawyer knows exactly what the options are.


• Be realistic but stick to your guns -- The ex wanted to settle for the original amount owed without interest. They kept pushing, but I refused. I was willing to go to court because I was so angry, so they backed down. One place where they didn't back down was that they wanted a non-disparagement agreement, my word that I wouldn't say bad things about them. My lawyer said that it should be mutual. I wasn't crazy about the idea, but eventually gave in for two reasons. I wanted to get paid, and I knew that given the court filings, it was going to end up on their corporate credit report and that any company doing any kind of due diligence would come across it. So I didn't have to say a single word; they had screwed themselves.


• Look for the pressure points -- Even after we had entered the settlement agreement (which threw their lawyer, who wasn't a litigator, for a loop), they wouldn't pay. My lawyer pointed out that he could order their bank to freeze their account, if I could get the name of the bank. Luckily, I had been paid some by them, though at the time wasn't recording bank info for client payments. But I called my bank and learned that not only does your bank keep copies of your checks as they are paid on file, but they keep copies of all checks that you deposit, as well. A $5 fee got me the front and back of one of the checks, so I was able to pass over the bank name and account. It's amazing how quickly a company can decide to cooperate when they can't get any of their money out of their accounts.


• Be persistent -- Even after all this, when their lawyer promised to wire money to my lawyer, it didn't come. So we prepared for stage two: issuing subpoenas to employees as well as large clients. Yes, we were going to drag in people who regularly paid them money and, likely, freeze any funds they would send. My lawyer let them know about this plan, and suddenly the money was there that day. Heh.

If you push, you can get paid, assuming that they have money. And when they keep paying themselves and landlords and utility companies, they have money. At that point, be indifferent to how much pain you are about to cause them. If they wanted to work something out, they could have, saving everyone grief. Hiring a lawyer isn't cheap. Mine worked on contingency, which could have mean as much as a third of the total. But I had come to the point that it was clear nothing would otherwise show up.

7 Practices to More Successful Corporate Assignments

On a writers board, someone mentioned a difficult experience with a difficult corporate project that was turning into many revisions, big reversals in direction, and increasingly hostile clients. If you haven't done many corporate assignments, it's easy to make a classic mistake and assume that they are like editorial, in that someone says what they want and you deliver it. Corporate work can be far trickier to manage (not that editorial is easy). Here are seven tactics that can help you manage the process:

1. Limit on number of drafts with additional payment for additional drafts.


2. Start with an outline that they must sign off on, and don't write a word of draft copy until you have agreement on the outline. That way it's clear when they want to change directions. It also lets you go through some alterations without much pain.


3. Indicate in the contract that drafts are based on approved outlines and, if the direction changes, so does the fee.


4. Get the names of all people involved in the approval process. Often you'll get someone in marketing claiming to have the say, but that is almost never the case. You want all decision makers involved from the beginning so you can get all the feedback early, rather than turning it into an edit-by-committee experience that you'd get at one of the big women's magazines.


5. Remember that you are the facilitator and are there in part to help them come to agreement on what they want to say.


6. After any meeting, you circulate a draft of minutes so, again, there is no confusion.


7. When someone wants something different, you patiently walk them back through drafts and meeting minutes, all calmly and coolly.

It may sound like a lot more work, but it's actually less. This give you control of the process, which will cut the total amount of time you spend on the job and will come up with something that they have bought into.

Measuring Your Business II

I've written before about metrics, or the use of measurement to better run your business. If you already calculated your lowest hourly rate, track cash flow, and follow the other numbers to know what is happening, it may be time to start looking at less obvious but still useful things to measure. This is probably easiest to point out with an example.

In some recent online discussions with other writers, I've noticed that many point to soft benefits, or gut feel reasons they make given decisions. For example, with a nod to my minor rant yesterday about low pay, people give many reasons for taking such assignments. Aside from the see-how-much-I-make-an-hour argument, there are other common reasons that writers give:

• A client is "nice" to work with.
• The client brings me assignment topics and I don't have to query.
• I find the work interesting.
• I have a book out and am doing a free piece to promote myself.
• I'm building a reputation that will pay off in the future.
• I'm building an audience.
• I'm getting a foot in the door on a new area of work.

Any of these can certainly be a factor in your decision of whether to work with a given client or not, because I'd hope that a writing business would be about more than just money. However, it's possible to bring in numbers and analyze at least some of these rationales more carefully.

Take having a client come to you with an assignment, saving you from having to query. This is certainly a benefit, but one that can be calcualted. You know from experience that it would have taken X hours to get the work, between researching an idea, creating a query, and doing the assignment dance. (And if you've never calculated this, it might be worth your explicitly adding up all time. You might be surprised, either at it being less or more than you expected.)

If you multiple that time by your calcualted billing rate (the amount you need to bill to make the money you need), then there is a cost savings of $Y. That means you can coldbloodedly compare the cost of the time saved and the discount $D that a client wants. So long as $Y is greater than $D, you are making more money for your time than you otherwise would have and opening more time in your schedule for something else, like approaching prospects about work. In fact, if $Y is big enough compared to $D, you might be able to even discount off your normal billing rate and still come out ahead financially. On the other hand, if $D is greater than $Y, then you know you're making less money than you would have had you invested time into a query. This lets you make a more informed decision as to the client's value to you. Your gut decision might be smart, or you might be doing something that feels right but that doesn't pan out when examined dispassionately.

This is why smart business executives focus on getting the information they consider necessary to make decisions. It often is only 10 to 12 factors, but it helps them know where the company is going.

In a similar vein, if you are a book author, you can work with a publisher to track book sales and look for an obvious uptick after a free article. If you haven't sold enough books as a result so the royalty more than makes up the time you spent preparing the article, then your marketing tactic may not be paying off. I say "may not" because this gets complicated. The benefit of increased sales is partly the ability to get future book assignments, so more sales today might help you tomorrow. And some will argue that you don't that the article won't attract more sales over time. Nevertheless, if the sales are up enough to help with selling a publisher on you, you're probably going to also see a significant increase in royalties, as both are directly correlated to the number of copies sold. And if the article is to act as a direct response medium, then the bulk of sales will happen within a short amount of time. If you find yourself arguing that you can't know for months what the full impact might be, I'd point you to a story my mother told me of the Truman-Dewey election, and a television commentator who, in the face of mounting evidence that Truman would win, kept saying, "But we still have to hear from the rural districts."

When considering whether to take a low-paying assignment ($L) because you like the topic or the editor, you know what a normally paying assignment for you would run ($N). Look at the difference between $N and $L ($N - $L = $D); that is the amount of revenue that you would have received for a regular assignment, but that you are giving up. Now you can decide if the opportunity cost is worth the pleasure, because you're now paying $D, by lowering your revenue, to take it.

You take a low-paying assignment to gain expertise in a topic that is new to you. Again, you can look at $D, the difference between what you are getting and what you would ordinarily get. Only in this case, you are opening a door to new areas of work. If those new areas at least meet your normally billing, then you've increased the potential number of clients. That provides a number of benefits. One is spreading your income among more clients and reducing your reliance on any single one. Maybe the share of your revenue that the average client represents goes from 15 percent to 10 percent. Should a client go under, that's 5 percent less income you need to immediately make up, making the investment in the low-paying article a cheap form of insurance.

Is a client high maintenance? You can measure the amount of time you spend versus the revenue you see. Take all the revenue and divide it by all the time the client takes up (including your ranting about the client to online forums, your colleagues, or those ever patient four walls of your office) to find the effective hourly profitability. If that number is greater than or equal to your normal billing rates, then keeping the client makes financial sense. (Though replacing the client with one that is less enervating can keep the profit while increasing your satisfaction, which might be even smarter.) Time spent chasing down money and the time value lost in late payments are other numbers you can consider.

In short, although I agree that some aspects of a business, like measuring the long term effectiveness of a marketing tactic, may not easily reduce to figures, there are many times in running your business that using numbers can help. And those numbers can help you avoid assumption-based decisions that can, at times, end up hurting you.

More on When Someone Asks You to Take Less

Today in my blog, The Reluctant Negotiator, I covered the question of what to do when a client asks you to take less. I'm making a note here because it's an important topic for writers, and also I had an additional exchange with Peter Bowerman that might also prove useful.

Someone had pointed Peter to the negotiation post and he left a comment and referred back to a post he had written on the same subject back in January. He was wrestling with the issue of whether to lower pricing on a job to a client new to him, because he had noticed business slowing a bit this year and wondered if people weren't becoming more price sensitive.

I just left him a comment that I think could be useful to other writers as well, because it's easy to run off-course when making these decisions. Here's my response to him:

Peter, I saw your comment on my blog and so checked out this link to your earlier post. Given the way you described the situation, I think you might be off in the way you're approaching this, for the following reasons:

1) Yes, economic times are bad, but not everyone is doing badly, and not everyone has a smaller budget. If you drop your price in advance, especially with someone you haven't' worked for before, you weaken future negotiations and might even be doing so for no particularly good reason. Don't judge someone else's bank account by loud sounds of panic from third parties.

2) If someone is primarily motivated by costs, then the person will keep looking to cut costs, extending the pricing negotiation throughout the length of the project by asking for more of this or that, being slow on payment, and so on. It's not necessarily the type of business you want.

3) Don't let the mention of other writers bother you. Clients are almost *always* looking at various solutions and providers. To bring it up is a negotiation tactic in which the person thinks he or she will get a better price. So send your regular price and they will still think they're getting a break because they don't know what you'd normally charge.

4) Rolling back pricing because of the economy only makes sense when you get the client to appreciate the value of the concession on your part. If you haven't done business before, they don't know they're getting a break. You'd need to get them to understand what you *would* have charged and that you're only doing this because of the economy. And, as I think about it, that argument sounds really weak to me. Better you offered it as a one-time discount for a first project.

5) If you are giving in on price, is there something you can get in return? One writer on Freelance Success who had responded to my post there noted that she had gotten a guarantee of work over a year from an existing client that needed a drop in rate. Guaranteed work has a specific monetary value that you can calculate and then weigh as part of your decision process.

6) The answer to slow business is not to drop prices, because then you are branding yourself a commodity by the action. Instead, significantly increase the amount of marketing. This becomes particularly important for writers who are established because it's easy to get used to an incoming flow of business from referrals and repeat clients. What is happening is that your converstion from marketing to assignment ration is decreasing. To avoid losing income, increase the pool.

7) Also remember that many clients will complain about the economy because they're hoping to get more for less. It's not that they can't afford your usual rates. They just want to see if they can get you to drop them. Do so, and you'll never get them back up again.

Asking for Work Isn't Marketing

Yes, the economy is down. Yes, a good number of publications have been cutting back and even going under. Yes, you have to market harder to get work. But, no, simply asking people for work is not marketing.

One of the topics I"ve seen in the writers' newsgroups and forums is that of sending out letters of introduction (LOIs) and the disappointment that comes from not getting a response. But think about it for a moment. A letter of introduction should be just that: an introduction of the writer to the client. It's nothing more than knocking on the door. To expect work to immediately come from one is to expect that, to the potential client, you are important. You're not.

You need to be ready to follow up on an LOI, particularly at a time when everyone and their writing siblings are trying to nail down work. Even if you've found some approach for LOIs that seems to turn into assignments for you, be prepared to go further. And if you've never had much luck with them, don't expect more today.

That goes for asking for assignments from editors. It's one thing if you have a strong relationship that you've build over time (meaning that you have been marketing, particularly by satisfying the client's needs through your work). But if you haven't, then you're just another yelping writer outside the door, asking for a handout. Instead of doing the usual, try something different. Send an idea or two with an LOI to show that you're capable of taking some of the burden off an editor. Make a sharp observation or two (diplomatically put, of course) about a company's latest marketing campaign to show a prospect that you have paid attention to what it has done. Show that you can provide some value. That will help you stand out from the gimme crowd.

Two Principles to Get Control Over Your Business in Bad Times

In various freelance forums and message groups, I've been hearing an increasing number of people feeling as though they have no control over what happens to them. As a result, they begin to take every setback personally and wonder who to get out of the emotional rut.

There is much in business that is beyond personal control - always. Even in the good times, you might be buoyed by a run of luck or economic conditions where companies are doing things because they think the entire nature of business has changed. We're just getting out of a long run of that. To have a sane relationship to your business, and not go through cycles of elation and depression, you have to start thinking and working above momentary events.

Rejections are almost never personal, and when they are, you wouldn't want to be working with that client anyway. While you cannot control how people react, you can influence it in two ways. One is to focus on how you market and the way you structure pitches and introductions. The more you can figure out what prospects need and focus on that, the more likely you'll catch the group that is willing to do something. You won't get every assignment; you never did. But remember, even when budgets get cranked down, companies still have to do business and publications need material.

That leads into the other way to control things. I remember many years ago reading the book "Rites of Passage at $100,000 to $1 Million +". It is a book about executive job change written by an experienced recruiter. He made the point that if someone really wants to get a job, the person should do direct contacts to literally 1,000 firms. The reason is timing and the law of averages. At any one time, a candidate is only going to be a good fit for only some percentage of companies, and at any one time, only some fraction of them will be interested in hiring. By sending out 1,000, candidates start to statistically ensure that they'll get interviews and, likely, a position (assuming that they have the experience and talent).

The way you deal with questionable conditions is to increase marketing. The more feelers you have out -- not even necessarily full-blown queries, but checking with potential clients to see what they are doing these days -- the greater a chance that some of your efforts will turn into sales. Between incresaing your contacts and honing the approach you take, you can start to control things because you're not letting yourself be dependent on what any one given client or prospect might be doing. This will probably mean more diversification in the past, but it will keep the business going well and put you in a position to do that much better when the economic cards turn a different way in the future.

Negotiating Client Budget Reductions

Yes, economic times are tough. Yes, some industries are particularly hard hit. Yes, some number of clients are going to push back on rates, crying that they are in budget difficulties. And, yes, it's true: many are and might not have more money to spend.

But, as I've written before, no, your first reaction should not be to drop your prices in a bid to make clients happy. There are a few reasons:

• Some clients may be desperate, but there will also be many interested in knowing how much they can save by crying poor.
• Anyone who wrote for technology publications in the late 1990s knows that when the dot com bubble burst, specialized magazines were going out of business right and left, and the remaining ones reduced their rates. (To be fair, the rates were related to high demand for writers and their relative scarcity to the work load.) If a client says, "We'll pay less until times are better," realize that the probability that times will get better enough for them to raise rates is about zero.
• Clients often talk, and once you're known for writing for those who pay less, the ones who pay more may want to revisit your rates.
• The more you give in on pricing, the more you have to work to make your living. Eventually your life is there to support your work, not the other way around.

To reduce your rates is to devalue what you are doing. There may be times it is necessary, but that is probably a rare occasion. More often you can try renegotiating to balance out the value you are giving up. Here are some approaches that can work:

1. Reduce what you offer -- Look to see where you can scale back what you provide to the client. Mind you, this is something you do out in the open so they understand that they are getting less because they are paying less. Maybe you don't search for art, or write something shorter, or provide fewer options.
2. Better payment terms -- If budgets are smaller, it might be that the client can pay faster or pay for a bank transfer instead of your waiting for a check to clear. Be careful, as some clients will promise anything knowing that the accounting department will work on its usually time frame.
3. Get regular work -- It takes a certain amount of time to find work. Get to some reasonable estimate of how long that is, and you can use your bottom line hourly figure to determine how much that time is worth to you. Discount an assignment by less than that, and you're actually ahead because you open more time for assignments and other marketing. So trade off a somewhat lower fee for guaranteed work.
4. Improve other terms -- There may be other conditions that, if changed, either improve cash flow, open time, or provide some other benefit whose financial value you can calculate. It may be that having more time to work on an assignment lets you manage your schedule more effectively. If you're doing work that requires outsourcing sections, it could be that you can have the client directly pay the other people (though you do face the potential risk of their making deals independent of you, which may or may not be a problem, depending on your business model). It might be that you can get money forwarded for expenses, rather than receiving payment after the fact.

As with all forms of negotiation, creative problem solving can take you a long way and even turn what could have been an income drop into a net gain.

Eleven Tips for Dealing with Bankrupt Clients

InnoVision Health Media, publisher of such titles as Natural Solutions and Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, reportedly filed for bankruptcy a few weeks ago. Although I'm no expert in the subject, I did have to deal with the bankruptcy of the parent of Pages Magazine. Here are a few tips I learned in the process:

• Do some research. Go on the web and find information written by lawyers/law firms whose practices are bankruptcy. This is a specific and intricate legal area, and a general business lawyer is not going to have the answers you need. Neither will friends, family, or other writers. Looking for help on some discussion site is a good way to thoroughly screw yourself, because if you don't do what is necessary, you could end up not getting a dime of what you are owed.
• File early. Don't wait until the very end. I know that the courts have to wait until the official filing deadlines, but there's no harm in getting your claim in early. If there are any problems, you'll have beaten the rush and you might have an easier time getting answers. Wiht Pages, I actually filed the minute I heard about it and didn't wait for the official notice.
• Find out what court is handling the bankruptcy. The bankruptcy courts handle specific geographic regions, and the governing factor is the state in which the company is incorporated. For many, that means Delaware. If you've received a notification, it will indicate the proper court. If you haven't, the company (or possibly a quick web search) should be able to tell you.
• Find the trustee. In any bankruptcy, there will be a company that handles the process - a trustee. This company supervises payments and handles the business of bankruptcy. It can give you definitive answers, even if the bankrupt company itself seems confused.
• You are an unsecurted creditor. That means you're lower on the payment priority than copmanies whose debt was secured with some sort of goods or inventory. That's just the way it is. You don't sell a physical product, and so cannot have a legal lien on that property.
• Fill out the paperwork completely. Yes, it's a pain to pull together all outstanding invoices and to fill out forms, but do it. The amount of time it takes is a lot less than you're thinking, and the upside is that you will get at least a portion of the money you're owed.
• Be ready for demands that you return recent payments. Trustees can demand that anyone paid within 90 days before the official bankruptcy filing return what they were paid, because that is considered a "preferred" payment, and the bankruptcy laws are set up to keep one creditor from getting an unfair advantage over another. If you do get such a notice, do not ignore it. You don't want the trustee, who enjoys the support of the court, to come after you. Instead, answer the demand.
• Don't expect to get everything you're owed. You'll only get some fraction of the money you had invoiced, so unleash your cry of outrage and get it over with. You're interested in getting something rather than nothing. It sucks, you're taking it in the wallet, that's life. It happens to many of us.
• Ignore the offers to buy your claim. There are companies that probably make a very nice living taking the public lists of creidtors for companies (including the totals owed) and making offers, starting at probaby 10 to 15 percent and maybe inching up when you don't bite the first time. Realize that they're not being nice and if they offer to give you 25 percent, they're expecting that your claim will be with 35 percent at least. (That would be a 40 percent return on their investment, which isn't bad at all.) Given that the total amount will be low, you're not getting any real advantage, because by the time you're getting the offers, you've already moved on by force of circumstances, because you've long had to make up your cash flow shortage. So let them troll after some other unfortunate and be patient, though getting your money can take months and months and months.
• Payments can come in parts. Depending on the conditions of bankruptcy, the trustees are probably disposing of assets to free up cash. This takes time. For example, the owner of Pages filed for bankruptcy early in January 2007. I received a third payment some time in the summer of 2008, and for all I know, there may be an additional one coming. All in all, I got at least a third of what I was owed. So if you are moving, make sure the court and trustee has your current contact information.
• Ongoing business may be acceptable. Once a client goes bankrupt, you could be reasonably concerned about doing business with it. However, in the case of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which means reorganization (unlike Chapter 7, which is a liquidation of assets), the courts have already put the debts to one side and payments for ongoing work are considered separately. So any work done for the company after the filing goes into a separate category and doesn't go into the queue with old debt.

The Problem with Social Media Campaigns

I'm about to talk about corporate marketing because there's a chance that some readers will seek financial solace in the arms of big business. One of the trends in marketing has been social media, putting together campaigns that are supposed to work on such sites as Facebook or MySpace. The concept actually isn't new and we've seen all sorts of "viral" campaigns bravely rolled out by corporations hoping to surf on the zeitgeist.

Unfortunately, if you've had the sense that many of these efforts will go nowhere, some research bears out your pessimism. A Gartner researcher said that three-quarters of the Fortune 1000 are trying to use social media, and that half of these efforts will fail:

"(Businesses) will rush to the community and try to connect, but essentially they won't have a mutual purpose, and they'll fail," Sarner said. By a "mutual purpose," he means a way to serve both the company putting out the campaign and the audience interacting with it: finding that balance is not easy. The quirkiest and most addictive campaigns often provide little value for the company and turn out to be fads, whereas marketing efforts on the Web often don't go over as well with the public.

In other words, people don't go to social media for the sake of companies. They go for their own interests. If the campaign you write doesn't take that into account, then it won't work. The campaign also must have an intelligent goal. Trying to "get people talking" isn't enough, because without action there will be no business benefit.

So you have to match the venue of the campaign, and its content, with the types of people you will find at that venue and their interests. It's really basic marketing, but easy to overlook in the rush to do trendy work. So act as a consultant, not just as a writer, and help your clients see the basic problems and be sure they are framing a campaign in a way that's likely to work. Because if it doesn't, guess who is likely to be seeing a good portion of the blame?

In a Credit Crunch, Double-Check Your Clients

You know things are tight when you start seeing companies in your industry halting their debt payments. Companies can go from reliable to hiding in a matter of days because they suddenly find that they cannot get the amounts of credit they need to keep their business operating as it should. That means now is the time that some regular clients may suddenly become completely irregular. Once they're in a bind, there is little you can do, so the best way to avoid cash constipation is to look for some warning sings now:

• If a client is publicly-held, check its financial news. I did this with a client the other day (never pays to forget your own advice) and found that it had recently issued a press release about securing financing. A good thing, because then I looked at its financials and noticed that cash on hand was down to a few hundred thousand dollars at the end of the quarter. Yuck. I've just finished an assignment, but will probably "not get around" to sending another query until I see things improve.


• This is a time when you should pay close attention to any change in payments. Do not rationalize them away by saying that it's an unusual circumstance. So is the credit crunch. Tha'ts not to say a company would have an inadvertant mix-up, but don't make the assumption.


• Don't wait for problems to happen; make your exit plans now. In other words, if there are some clients that look questionable, immediately market to find potential replacement clients. That doesn't mean that you need to dump an existing client, but you want to be able to balance your work load and shift into a different set of clients if necessary. You also get the benefit of broadening your client base, being in greater demand, and maybe even making more money.

There Is No Safety on Writers Boards

I've probably said this before, but it bears repetition. Writers go to online boards and assume that a closed and paid membership guarantees confidentiality and privacy. I've seen writers complain about editors, troll for help with stories in ways that at times suggests they don't put much effort into their work, and admit to working practices that would scare off many desirable clients. Why? Because they think they are safe.

A recent episode on one board was a reminder that editors may be freelance and on the same venues as the writers. I've also seen multiple cases over the years of someone forwarding comments to a publication in an attempt to curry favor while indirectly attacking a competitor.

The only way to use writers' boards safely is to assume that anything you write will be available to anyone and everyone. Before you post, tell yourself that the editor is also logged in, or that some partisan is ready to relay every sentence (or chosen ones out of context) to clients or prospects. There's a lot you can get out of discussions with other writers, and there are also times that burning a bridge with a client is warranted. But most often you don't want the latter, so don't put yourself into a position where you do so unintentionally.

Emirates Airline Dumps Its Magazine

This isn't one of the big markets in the US, but it's worth noting that Emirates Airline will no longer carry its paper in-flight magazines and entertainment guides. Instead it will send "similar content" into its in-flight entertainment system. They figure that they'll drop close to 4.5 pounds per passenger this way. It's part of the cost cutting measures the airline is taking because of high fuel prices. (Any irony that this happens first in the Middle East?)

I'm not sure that it will be so long before other carriers consider the same sort of tactic; they're already charging for checked baggage. Also, the people who produce the in-flight digital material are probably different from those that create the printed magazines. Between these two factors, if you count on airline magazines for a significant amount of your business, it might be smart to branch out as quickly as possible and find other clients so you don't get caught in a change, should it happen. And if it doesn't, the worst thing is that you end up with more clients.

Three Considerations on Dealing with Growing Payment Cycles

On a writers' board, someone brought up the topic of clients that are trying to unilaterally stretch their payment schedules from 30 days to 45 or more. There should be two concerns when that happens. One is that we're in some times when certain types of clients - print publications, for example - are feeling a revenue pinch. Generally when a client, particularly a smaller one, starts paying later and later, it's a sign of economic troubles.

There's another factor at work as well. Remember that the commercial credit crisis hasn't suddenly stopped. One result is that many businesses, including large ones, don't have access to their usual amounts of credit, which is the lubricant for all sorts of business transactions. When things get tight on the lending side, you can find some of these larger clients choosing a different form of financing - late payment to vendors - that they think they can control.

Whatever the case, you want to consider your various options and what steps might be best for you in the short and long runs:

• Hit the 'Chutes If you have any sense that the company is in financial trouble, drop the client immediately. Usually I'm an advocate for phasing out clients over time and not dropping one until you have a replacement. However, if there are economic problems, the chances are overwhelming that they will continue to be bad. I'm not suggesting that you be rude or panicked. You can excuse yourself by blaming your schedule or simply stop pitching ideas. If you do not take action quickly, you can find yourself with thousands being owed money that you may never see. Generally speaking, making a break and doing intensive marketing is a less costly solution.
• Recalculate Client Viability Just as I think it's good to limit the total amount of business that any one client represents of your normal billing activity, I also think it's good to limit what is tied up in long payers - and to make sure that you're getting something from it in terms of higher rates. If it's more waiting for no more money, then it's time to recalculate the client's profitability and PIA factors and consider whether a replacement might not make sense.
• Get Something in Return The client wants you to give in on something. That means you're in a negotiation and should consider if there is something you could get in return to make things acceptable. Maybe you should increase your rates to cover the few percent that you lose in the time value of money (what borrowing that amount of money for a month or two might cost). Perhaps you should have late fees or, even better, a slight discount for accounts paid within a short amount of time. If you regularly do business, perhaps you could get a retainer relationship, with a certain amount of money guaranteed every month. Perhaps you'd get a greater share of more valuable assignments. Figure out what might make things desirable from your end (so long as you don't think the client's economic ship is taking on water).

Even if you find things slowing down, you can weather the storm and even arrange your business to eliminate the disruption of those checks hitting your mailbox.

The PITA Tax

On her blog, Heather Boerner has an amusing and useful piece on treating pain in the rear clients as a class that needs to be taxed as part of an interview with Bob Sutton, author of The No Asshole Rule. The idea is to add up all the time you spend, including the minutes you fret over dealing with the client, and multiply that by your hourly rate. This is actually a cute variation on understanding the profitability of a client. You have to calculate not only the time for which you actually get to invoice, but that part belonging to overhead and personal time. Much of this you would ordinarily write off as part of your operational expenses (for example, you don't get paid for crafting pitches to clients). But if the time is significant, it may heavily cut down the profitability, because you're actually putting in more time than you can bill for.

I'd take my target hourly rate (How many zeros can I add?), not my bottom line "must make" number, and multiple it by all the time spent on the average for the client. Then take that total amount of money and divide by the number of billable hours. Whether you express this as an hourly figure to them or merely up your project fees doesn't matter. However, do be prepared to find a replacement client, because if the size of the new number doesn't kill him or her, there's a good chance the person will walk away. Ah, how sad.

Fear of Phoning: 5 Techniques to Reduce It

From time to time I see writers posting online messages about feeling afraid to call clients. Personally, I think it's a mistake to simply avoid the situation by using email for several reasons:

• Constantly avoiding what you fear only strengthens the emotion's grip on you.
• Editors often ignore email, or the messages get pushed into a spam filter, leaving the writer wondering why there is no answer.
• Sometimes the phone is the best form of communication, next to being in-person, and to avoid it is to give up an important marketing and sales tool.

I often see another writer answer something to the extent of, "Oh, but you're great, so just call. Don't be worried about it." Tell that to the person in the middle of fear. It may sound good, but the results can be exactly the opposite of what the encourager might want. Instead, here are some approaches that can be helpful. None of them require you to directly confront the fear, as often the most effective approach is an indirect one that lets you focus on intellect or action, both of which offer you far more control:

• Write it down One of the ways the fear of phoning comes out is the sense that you're babbling and sound like a complete loon. So write down all the points you want to make in roughly the order you want to make them. When you're prepared and know what you have to say, then you can stick with that, rather than trying to wing it.
• Take your time There is no rule that all negotiations happen within one sentence, let alone one conversation. Take the time you need to make your points. If someone comes up with something you're not ready for, say that you have to give it some thought and plan a subsequent discussion on the issue.
• Schedule ahead It's tought to make yourself pick up the phone when you're in the middle of fear. But the entire situation is different when you've scheduled the call and you cannot simply not bother. Use the power of your own obligation to get you on the phone in the first place, when possible.
• You can always say no You tend to get on a call to conduct a negotiation, whether over a contract, an assignment, or even the attempt to get an assignment. Fear comes in part from the concern that you won't get what you want. When that happens, invoke the power of walking away. There is no single assignment that will make or break your career and no single job that will make or break your entire financial existence. There are always other clients and other work out there; remind yourself to reduce the pressure of how much you need this particular negotiation to go through.
• Do some marketing A variation on the previous point, you can become more confident when you have more prospects. Reduce your dependence by sending off a few queries before you get on the phone. The more choices you have in work, the more control you have and, as a result, the more confidence and less fear you will feel.

Work with every intellectual and physical tool you have in a way that increases the odds in your favor and reduces the power of fear.

Steady Clients: Passion or Passivity?

I had a couple of recent experiences that got me thinking about the nature of long-term clients and customer satisfaction. In one case, I had thanked a writer who had referred me to a client and got a pleasant note about the feedback being strongly positive and saying that it was likely we'd be working on the next project together. ON the other hand, I found myself on the other side of the writer/client relationship, being highly displeased with one writer, as I was editing a feature package for a magazine, and saying that I'd never work with the person again. When I talked to my editor, the real client, she said, "You know, you've inspired me. I've been putting up with that writer for a long time, but maybe I just won't use the person again."

Most people in business assume that a steady client is a good client. From some views, that is absolutely correct: you lower your cost of acquiring a new customer while increasing the customer's lifetime value, or the amount of money the entity spends with you over the span the two of you do business. In short, the more money you make over time from a customer, the more efficient your marketing becomes, the more time and resources you can invest in building the future of your business, and the greater return on your previous marketing time and money investment.

Not all steady customers are the same:

• Some like doing business with you. They will seek you out, at least for the types of work they perceive you as doing well.



• Another group does business out of convenience. They have experience with you, so you become the devil they know, rather than the one they don't. That's not to say that all clients in this category consider you a devil, but we all have our weaknesses. On the balance, they find that doing business with you is a reasonably move on their parts.



• Third comes clients that work with you out of habit or inertia. They may not particularly like your work, business model, or style, but it's not enough to drive them off immediately.



• Fourth is the captured group that does business with you because they feel that they have no other choice, but they are actively interested in finding a replacement.

As you go from top to bottom, the clients may still be steady, for now, but they are increasingly likely to find another writer as soon as is convenient. That means there are different levels of vulnerability in your business even when you think some of your income is from tried and true sources.

I know we'd all like to think that all of our clients love us, but it's simply untrue. Look back over your career with some honesty, and you'll remember companies that flushed you out, or that took some work but didn't seem overly interested in having you do anything additional. There may have been some companies that kept a relationship only to get through a project - they were captive at the time - and beat a hasty retreat at the first possible moment.

Looking at your clients this way isn't to enter the land of blame, but of assessment. It may be that you and a client were or are simply incompatible, and that further business would run counter to either of your interests. The client might have been so unrealistic that a reasonable business effort would never have sufficed, and that there would never be enough forthcoming compensation to justify the exertion. Or it could be that you need to improve something - writing, business practices, areas of knowledge, or so on.

It generally takes time to know yourself well enough to begin making these judgment calls. I remember many, many years ago screwing up royally on some work and trying to blame the other party, but in my heart I knew that I was at fault. In a case like that, all you can do is work like hell to get good at what you do. Over time, the better you are, the more business starts coming your way, and the more you are able to command in the market. If you can get better faster, more power to you. If you're behind, why not work at getting better? Over time you might be able to increase a client's enthusiasm, and the chance that it will be around tomorrow.

Dealing With Rejection

Heather Boerneris addressing hte topic of rejection on her blog. That got me thinking about the topic and sending her a reply to a LInkedIn message she had sent out. But I thought I'd also look at the topic here.

Rejection is a constant companion for the self-employed. In fact, ask a group of experienced freelancers about the most important qualities for success, and not getting bogged down by rejection is one of the answers you'll inevitably get. The reason is that success in freelance writing comes from reducing the inevitable amount of rejection you'll get.

It's easy enough to say, "Develop a thick skin," but that doesn't explain why it is necessary. If you've been writing for any period of time, imagine what would happen if everyone said yes to everything you proposed. You'd drown in work and have no life. Getting work depends on hitting the right person in the right company at the right time with the right idea and right background to carry it out. That's a lot of right. The odds of that happening each and every time you send out a letter of introduction or query - given how much is completely out of your control - is unrealistic.

To get down from rejection has three parts. One is normal disappointment. I'd really like to know that the work and money were coming in, but they're not, so I have to move on to the next prospect.

Another part is not so normal, because it involves taking rejection as personal failure when you don’t accomplish what literally cannot be done. One is when the freelancer takes everything personally. Do you agree with your significant other on everything? Probably not, and you’re far less close to your clients, so why expect that much acceptance? You may be involved in your business, but you are not the same as your business. Focus on your decisions and the efforts you make, not on others.

The third problem is when you view each rejection as a threat. It’s not. Rejection works two ways, and you constantly reject clients – by not pitching them, by turning down projects that don’t make sense for you, by negotiating different terms than they originally wanted. It’s a game of numbers, and you need to make enough efforts so that, on the whole, the numbers break your way.

There is enough heartache in the world; why needlessly manufacture more for yourself? Clients aren’t family, friends, or lovers. They’re people who pay you to do something. Keep some distance and save the bitter rejection tears for those times that they are really warranted.

Reaping What You Sow

I've been having what for me is an atypical experience: working as an editor on a large special feature for a magazine to which I regularly contribute. the editor had me work with several writers, and I've been coordinating and editing a large number of short pieces. What I'm getting to see up close is just how badly a writer can destroy a business relationship and develop a terrible reputation.

It's been interesting to see how three specific writers fell into categories, and how little things colored how I perceived them. One writer was great. Copy needed some editing, but that didn't matter, as each piece was slightly longer then I had requested and had most of the information I might want. the next writer was pretty good, but not as good. The differences were subtle. For example, the second writer had a couple of delays (but communicated and kept me informed), used an odd font in the story files (I had to adjust them to make them readily readable), and took a while to include all the information I needed in the format I wanted.

And then there was the third. I was able to catch the person in one outright lie after another; learned that the writer had missed an interview with a subject without immediately following up to fix the situation; would email to say "I'll have XYZ done by tomorrow morning," only to have the deadline pass without a peep; would ignore more and more harshly worded instructions I'd send; never responded to a phone call; offering one excuse after another; and during all this, would pretend that I had never mentioned some things and keep talking about how the writing would "sing." Too bad it was all off key, trying to get away with as little effort as possible for the assignment and pay (which, by the way, was hardly bad) and keep every dollar of assignment, no matter how much that might have screwed me or the magazine up.

I bet that the writer still thinks he/she was a) actually clever, b) good, and c) reasonably decent to deal with. I talked to two editors I know who had dealt with him, and heard stories ranging from only slightly better to just as bad and even worse. When talking with a third editor who didn't know the writer in question (but who has now added the name to his "black list"), we joked about knowing all the tricks becsue we've been on one or the other end of them in the past. If you think that you have never done any of this at any time in your working life, even in youth, then you are probably fooling yourself.

However, the important question is how do you relate to the rest of the industry today?; Are you trying to shave corners? Do you do things "your way" because that's the way you like it? If there are problems developing, are you quickly on letting your client know and working out other arrangements as necessary? Even worse, do you think things are fine because you don't hear anything negative?

One editor I spoke with said, who heard how hard I had been on the person, said, "You've inspired me. I think I'm not going to use X any more." Sometimes editors keep writers around out of inertia. They don't get rid of someone and find ways to cope. But tolerance doesn't mean welcome. You should do your own self examination and see where there's room for improvement, and then work hard to make the necessary changes happen. Don't depend on inertia, because eventually something will bump into the client, and by then, rescuing the relationship may be impossible.

Learn to Say No

Every writer knows that there are times to just say no. Sometimes pay or terms of a deal are far enough from your business model and practices that you can't afford to take on a given assignment or client.

And yet there is another circumstance under which many writers would do well to reply in the negative, even if their impulse is to agree almost before the question is asked. That's when someone approaches a writer with a potential assignment out of his or her experience and the writer relies on the theory that yes is always the right answer, with a scramble after to find a way to satisfy it.

I disagree that yes is always the smart thing to say, and would argue that the approach is often business disaster waiting to happen. There are areas that need specific experience and knowledge. For example, it's difficult to write about investor relations, whether in an article or as part of an annual report without some clear understanding about the regulatory nature of the field and what can and cannot be said. You could agree to cover semiconductor manufacturing without the right type of tech background, and things could blow up without your even realizing that they have at the time.

This isn't to say that you can't shift to new areas. Sometimes a topic unfamiliar to you has analogies in what you've already covered, making a transition smooth. It could be that something new, or the treatment of it, doesn't require anything that you don't already have. You might be able to develop expertise in a different field, if you invest the time.

Clients usually know when a general background will do, and when they need someone specialized. In the latter situation, making a promise and then assuming that you'll be able to cover the ground is not just taking a chance with your time, but with your client's business and money. Such cases are con games.

A business relationship is not just about you. If you find that you don't readily grasp the essentials of the topic, then you should not be covering it, or both you and the client should go into it with eyes open - and fees that reflect the fact you're on a learning curve.

What Business Are You In?

The title of this post probably sounds like a stupid question. You're a writer, right? Then you must be in the writing business.

Absolutely not. You do write, and people pay you after you write, but they aren't really paying you because you write. If people were paid simply for the act of writing, there would be millions of professional writers out there. But anyone who's been in the business knows that there getting people to pay you for writing is difficult.

The reason is that they aren't buying writing. They're buying a someone to satisfy their needs. This came home to me on a recent assignment in which I received a somewhat vague assignment. I talked with the client, understood what the contact wanted to achieve, and I started to offer suggestions - a way to frame the approach to satisfy my client's client, a structure that might provide a way of meeting the layout parameters of the publication while conveying the necessary content, and a new approach when the client made an assumption (which I had specifically asked about) that turned out not to be valid. With each step, I helped the experienced contact relax and gain more confidence that I would deliver something that would work - because we collaboratively solved the problems, and the execution would then be mechanical and predictable.

I understood that "writing" was either only part of what I do, or that the definition of writing is far broader than you often hear. I was solving a business problem. That's not to say that the writing process is unimportant to me. On the contrary, I'm always looking to expand my repertoire, strengthen my descriptive capabilities, and deepen my grasp of structure. But by itself, that is not enough. I need to apply these capabilities toward what my clients need. Otherwise I might as well be writing something literary. There's nothing wrong with that, of course (and I do write plays, fiction, and poetry), but if I want clients to deliver sizeable paychecks, I need to deliver what clients values: the satisfaction of their needs.

Newspapers and Goodwill

Most people think of good will as a desirable state of mind around the winter solstice holidays, no matter what you call them. But in business, goodwill is the difference between the value of a company - expressed as the value of all its stock - and the value of the firm's tangible assets. In other words, goodwill is how much investors and the market think a company is work over and above the more objective value of everything it owns. And if you count newspapers as a market, read this Bloomberg article and you may see why you should make the acquaintence of this term.

Goodwill exists because the world wants to account from where the value of a company comes. It's clear why; without financial attribution, charlatans would be free to claim any value of a company, pulling the wool over the eyes of many. The problem with goodwill is that it can be fickle. As the opinions of those in the market change, so can the goodwill, and the value - and financial solvency - of the company. Some companies, like Google, have a great deal of goodwill value. But the danger is when you see too much value in goodwill, you must wonder how stable it is.

As the article's author, Jonathan Weil, notes, many publicly-held newspaper companies have a great deal of goodwill on their balance sheets. That might mean that the values are artificially high and that companies will ahve to write down their book value, which means it will be harder for them to get credit, raise money, and do other things that will hinder their competitiveness. Here's Gannett as an example:

Even Gannett, the largest U.S. newspaper publisher, looks ripe for a balance-sheet hit. Its market value is $7.9 billion. By comparison, its $8.98 billion book value at Sept. 30 included $10.06 billion of goodwill and $818 million of other intangibles. Tara Connell, a spokeswoman for the McLean, Virginia-based company, says Gannett is evaluating the matter.

If you're going to do business with an industry, it's important to gain some financial literacy so you can see where trouble might be brewing.

Handling Client Budget Moaning

Yes, economic times are tough. Yes, some industries are particularly hard hit. Yes, some number of clients are going to push back on rates, crying that they are in budget difficulties. And, yes, it's true: many are and might not have more money to spend.

But, as I've written before, no, your first reaction should not be to drop your prices in a bid to make clients happy. There are a few reasons:

• Some clients may be desperate, but there will also be many interested in knowing how much they can save by crying poor.
• Anyone who wrote for technology publications in the late 1990s knows that when the dot com bubble burst, specialized magazines were going out of business right and left, and the remaining ones reduced their rates. (To be fair, the rates were related to high demand for writers and their relative scarcity to the work load.) If a client says, "We'll pay less until times are better," realize that the probability that times will get better enough for them to raise rates is about zero.
• Clients often talk, and once you're known for writing for those who pay less, the ones who pay more may want to revisit your rates.
• The more you give in on pricing, the more you have to work to make your living. Eventually your life is there to support your work, not the other way around.

To reduce your rates is to devalue what you are doing. There may be times it is necessary, but that is probably a rare occasion. More often you can try renegotiating to balance out the value you are giving up. Here are some approaches that can work:

1. Reduce what you offer -- Look to see where you can scale back what you provide to the client. Mind you, this is something you do out in the open so they understand that they are getting less because they are paying less. Maybe you don't search for art, or write something shorter, or provide fewer options.
2. Better payment terms -- If budgets are smaller, it might be that the client can pay faster or pay for a bank transfer instead of your waiting for a check to clear. Be careful, as some clients will promise anything knowing that the accounting department will work on its usually time frame.
3. Get regular work -- It takes a certain amount of time to find work. Get to some reasonable estimate of how long that is, and you can use your bottom line hourly figure to determine how much that time is worth to you. Discount an assignment by less than that, and you're actually ahead because you open more time for assignments and other marketing. So trade off a somewhat lower fee for guaranteed work.
4. Improve other terms -- There may be other conditions that, if changed, either improve cash flow, open time, or provide some other benefit whose financial value you can calculate. It may be that having more time to work on an assignment lets you manage your schedule more effectively. If you're doing work that requires outsourcing sections, it could be that you can have the client directly pay the other people (though you do face the potential risk of their making deals independent of you, which may or may not be a problem, depending on your business model). It might be that you can get money forwarded for expenses, rather than receiving payment after the fact.

As with all forms of negotiation, creative problem solving can take you a long way and even turn what could have been an income drop into a net gain.

When to Fire the Toxic Client

I've seen some online discussions lately about firing "toxic" clients. As in any other business, when providing writing services, there may be times that you find a given client a major problem. It could be for a number of reasons, including any of the following:

• abusive contact person


• offensive contact person


• client demands are continuingly unreasonable


• client wants you to act unethically


• payment habits cause you financial problems


• client disorganization overly affects your work schedule

Notice that a number of these factors - or others you might think of - require a judgment. To receive offense, one must be affected by the conduct of another. Unreasonable is what strikes you as such. Payment habits that might affect one person's business might not be a problem for someone with greater financial resources. In short, often the toxicity of a client has just as much to do with how you perceive the behavior and react to it as it does with what the entity or person is doing.

How you handle the tocis client will depend on the circumstances. It might be that you can get a person to change behavior enough to be tolerable. That sometimes is possibly with the behavior of the company itself, not the contact there, although getting a company to change is generally far more difficult.

If you can't get a change and the client, for whatever reason, continues to grate on your nerves, then you need to cut them loose. When and how you do so depends on just how much the client affects you. If the client is such a problem that it drags everything else down in your business or life, then they go immediately, even if you find it finanically inconvenient. If you don't, it could potentially depress the rest of your business, to say nothing of you.

That should be an exceedingly rare situation. If the circumstances aren't so dire, then you find other clients first and then phase out the problem one, so your income doesn't take a beating as a result. This becomes part of your ongoing strategy to keep the best clients and develop new ones, phasing out those that no longer meet the needs of your business. there are people who will tell stories of ridding themselves of a problematic client only to have replacement work show up of its own accord. yes, this does happen sometimes, and it may be that when you're not so wrapped up with a problem, it's easier to see opportunities when they present themselves. But be wary of impetuously dumping the work you don't want under the assumption that something better will come along. It's my experience that this happens when you've laid the groundwork for more work to come in.

Now for the really big however. I've known writers who always complained about this abusive client or that unreasonably one. There would never be a time when someone wasn't being unreasonably offensive. In my experience, and that of most successful writers I know, such problems should be the rare exception and not the rule.

In business - and in dealing with people in any aspect of life - it's important to develop the stomach face the imperfections of others, just as you might hope they would forgive and manage wtih yours. Just because someone seems rude or demanding on a given day doesn't mean you should get caught up in unnecessary drama. There should be only a handful of times in someone's career when a client is so bad that it must go immediately. If you find yourself seething on a regular basis even as you replace clients, then the problem may be closer to home, and not with the low quality of customers these days.

Managing Assignment Risk

Whether you work in editorial, corporate, non-profit, or even fiction, you still have to run a business. One of the big areas that established businesses consider is risk. The idea is actually simple, and you do it every day in your life. When crossing a street, for example, you look both ways. What you're doing in that moment is assessing risk by determining if there is any oncoming traffic. Obviously if there's a car right a few yards away, you stay on the curb. Similarly, if there isn't a vehicle in sight, you can cross at your leisure.

But what if there is traffic coming from one or both directions at varying distances? You may have enough time to safely cross or not, and you make that judgment based on your past experience. What you're doing subconsciously is identifying a potential source of danger and calculating how likely it is to cause a problem.

Think about it and you'll see how amazing this is: you estimate speed and position, take into account direction and your own pace, mentally calculate whether you and the car will intersect at any point, adjust your own speed as a consequence, consider how urgently you need to get across the street, and then make a decision as to whether it is "safe" for you to cross at that time.

You can do the same thing, often with as little effort, in your writing business. All it requires is for you to put at bay your eagerness at getting work. Instead, you take a few minutes when hearing of an assignment and consider the following points, at least:

• Pay - Well, of course you consider that. Or do you? If you find yourself making excuses for why a low pay assignment is acceptable to take, then you're not bringing a critical view that you need.


• Timing - Is the schedule one you can live with? You have to consider when it must start, when the work is due, how much time it would take, and how fully you are booked.


• Profitability
- Take the pay and divide it by the time you estimate that the assignment will take. You now have a dollar per hour figure that should be at least above your minimum. (See my article on business planning to the left under Writer Resources.) This is another point where you should be brutally honest. If you aren't going to make enough for the time you invest, think carefully whether you want to get involved, as it could be a huge mistake.

• Getting Paid - You want to be sure that you get the money you're earning. Check out the current reputation of the client. If you hear of others getting stiffed, or even greatly delayed, pass on the assignment. If you're working with someone unknown to you, limit your exposure. Take only one assignment at the start and see how it goes. If it's a large assignment, break the tasks and deliverables into multiple parts, billing (and, hopefully, collecting) for each before continuing to something else. Too many writers have found themselves waiting for thousands of dollars because they didn't use this approach.


• Business Fit - Generally not as major a consideration, it should still be one. Will you see any disadvantage from the association with the client? If so, can you remove it by working under a pseudonym?


• Client Satisfaction - Taking business that only has the opportunity for single assignments is largely a waste, because you can't leverage the marketing you just did and the time it takes to set up a client and have it set you up as a vendor on its accounting system. If there is the chance for continuing assignments, be sure you can deliver on what the client needs and wants. If not - if you don't have particular skills or expertise the client needs - then determine whether getting up to speed is possible. If not, then refer the client to someone who can do that particular job. You avoid wasting everyone's time and actually build relations with the client.

This doesn't have to be an onerous process. Just consider the signs you can see, what your experience and that of others tells you, and make an informed decision. You won't be right all the time, but you're unlikely to get as seriously run over as you might otherwise.

Create a No-Wordsmithing Zone

I hate the term wordsmithing - I have since I first heard it as a professional writer. The word, and the attitude it represents, are dismissive, placing the process of writing on the level of clever assembly line operations. You take what the client gives you and "massage" it until it reads better. There is that unspoken assumption that the writer adds window dressing only.

Of course this is absurd. Writing is about analytic thinking, the absorption of information, the analysis of this mental material, and the design and construction of an intellectual road map that can get readers from point A to point Z while leaving them feeling more intelligent than when they started reading. Of course they feel smarter: suddenly they grasp something. however, it's the writer that does the heavy lifting and leaves a paved path where once there was bramble and brush.

There was a time that I didn't flinch when I heard wordsmithing. That is no longer the case. When a client uses that term or something similar ("The document only needs a little editing."), I disabuse them of the notion. When a corporate client plays the editing card, I say, "No, you're looking to condense material and to find the most important points. That's not editing; that's writing." When an editor sits on an article for weeks and then suddenly surfaces and says, "I need this changes," I say, "That's fine - I can get them to you in X number of days."

The more you remain quiet when a client effectively dismisses what you do, the more value you help drain from your services and the lower you set your price. The next time someone asks you to wordsmith, point out that you don't polish words like so many pieces of silver plate. You're a writer, and the work takes time, skill, and proper compensation.

Read the Business Pages

What do sub-prime mortgages, debt-backed equity derivatives, and growing credit card debt have to do with writing? Nothing, if you don't cover financial matters. But they have everything to do with a writing business. You not only have to crank out words, but you need to properly plan your business, understand where you should be steering it, what external blockades their are to your progress, and what pitfalls lie ahead. Of course that means studying markets and particular publications, but it also means understanding the business climate.

The global economy affects clients of all sorts. Publications depend on ad revenue. Corporations depend, ultimately, on people buying something. People depend on having enough spare money to make their purchases. Trip one area up - like a credit crunch hitting consumers and investors while tripping the housing market, which has been artificially inflated and the source of much of the wealth people thought they had but didn't - and the rest may also take a spill.

When you see an impending economic black hole, it's time to consider your potential strategies. If you focus on the financial markets, then you have to ask yourself if your clients are overly involved in these problematic areas, because when they run into a wall, so might your client. If you're not specifically in the financial area, then you should consider the possibility that within six to eight months, there is a good chance that companies may need to reduce their spending. To keep your business humming, that means you need to diversify, not just among different industries, but also among different companies.

If you have a significant portion - 20 percent or more - tied up with a single client, consider backing off a bit and not being so dependent. Generally diversification is a smart risk-management practice, but in times like these, it can keep you from getting crushed. When you spread the risk, you're not in as great a danger of that one big client cutting back on its work flow.

I'm not suggesting that anyone panic, and, obviously, I have no way of knowing what the economy will do exactly. I'm no financial expert, but I do read the business pages, particularly the articles that talk about broad economic trends. I also try to read between the lines and connect information I get from various sources. This is a case where, if I'm wrong, diversification won't hurt. But if I'm right, it could save my bank account. Maybe a little preemptive risk management could do the same for you.

Address Problems When They Arise

A noticed a writer discussing a situation that has become too familiar - after taking an assignment and signing a contract, the client wants to change the terms. That in itself isn't necessarily unreasonable. Both you and the client (whether a corporation, a non-profit, or a publisher) anticipated certain conditions, but the client has realized that it made a mistake or that a situation had unexpectedly changed. Each side needs to remember that business, as well as life, has its twists and turns, and sometimes you need to be flexible.

However, changes may have an impact on how you and the client will work together. It may be that your contract addresses that; for example, it might provide payment by length, with additional material generating additional revenue. But what if someone wants to cut an assignment after you are in it and have committed the time that can no longer be contracted out to another client? Does the contract specify a minimum flat fee? Is there an expectation that as the scope drops, your pay drops? Does a flat fee bring into question whether an expansion will gain increased payment?

It's normal for questions to arise, and the time to bring them up is when they occur. Do not continue working until you resolve them. In the case I saw mentioned, the writer was asked to provide more material with an editor saying, "Oh, don't worry, I'll cut it down." Then, suddenly, the editor decided to run something twice the length and now, supposedly, had to get the top editor to authorize something. More likely, the editor in question was hoping the writer wouldn't say anything, and once the writer did, was now caught and didn't want to bring the situation up with the EIC. I had this happen recently with a corporate client that wanted to pretend that some commissioned work didn't happen, asking to be billed for one part and not another.

You cannot let this sort of situation pass, even if you think that you will permanently lose the client. Not only do you set a precedent, but you will feel terrible for letting yourself be bullied. There is a world of clients out there, and no matter what the size of one, you don't need to do business with it. Bring up the problem when it arises and don't meekly accept your fate.

This reminds me of a story an academic and consultant told me of a small manufacturer doing business with Wal-Mart. Over a few years, the retailer pushed for one concession after another. Eventually the small company said, "We're sorry, but it's no longer profitable for us to do business this way," and it walked away. The tiny margin on the volume didn't make up for all the hoop-jumping. Wal-Mart pointed out that it could find another supplier, and did. Interestingly, though, a couple of years later, the chain went back to the manufacturer, asking if it would be willing to take the business under better terms. What happened was that Wal-Mart had forgotten what the small company had remembered - that you have to look at the value of the entire relationship. When it went with another vendor, there were huge customer service problems that increased the overall cost of doing business, no matter how cheap the products seemed to be. But even if Wal-Mart hadn't come back, the company would have been better off, because it didn't back down from what it knew was its own interest.

Whether a client comes back or not is immaterial. There is more to life than money, and to keep your own self-respect, treat your business dealings as though you have the right to equitable treatment. If you won't, no one else will, either.

Check on Invoices Early and Often - at First

I find that most companies have their own rhythms when it comes to payment - their own processes, cash flow, and requirements. Often the buyer at the client - whether editor, corporation, or organization - doesn't think much about those processes. Your first invoice with someone is always tricky because the accounting department has to get you into the account payable system as a vendor, which might require additional authorization than just getting an invoice signed and passed in.

So on that crucial first invoice, I check right when it's due - sometimes asking the person I dealt with, but more frequently, now, going right to the accounts payable department. These people aren't shy about talking money and actually expect to hear from their vendors with problems and questions. Call and ask how the process works and see if they have your invoice. Explain that this is a regular process you go through to make sure things are working smoothly and to better understand their process, and that you're not standing over their shoulder about when you will be paid for this particular check. If there is a problem, like someone not filling out paperwork or an invoice not arriving from the buyer, then you can start taking corrective action rather than waiting weeks more and getting your stomach in a know. It's just business - so just take care of it.

There Be Business Monsters

I recently read of a writer who was working for a publication at a fifth her normal rate because the editor mentioned the possibility of a regular job with them. At the end of the first assignment, suddenly the job was no longer a possibility – at that time, of course. But the editor liked the writer’s work and wanted to use her again, though there wasn’t as much money available for the new assignment. And the job might just be available in the future. So the writer debated taking it the second assignment.

Welcome to the real world of business, boys and girls. No matter how “nice” this editor seemed, she was shameless playing the writer three ways from Sunday. I’ll entertain the benefit of the doubt that she might have been acting unconsciously, but my money would be on her knowing what she was doing each step of the way. In fact, I'll go so far as to state that each and every one of you, possibly recently, has been manipulated by a client (editorial or corporate) that you liked.

That's not surprising. We're all human and we all manipulate others to some degree or another. But many people drop their usual scruples and constraints when it comes to business negotiation. You might hear, "Oh, don't worry, just write it long and I'll take care of it," which translates into, "Give me more material so I can pick and choose, and I'll happily reward you by paying no more than I need to." It could be, "Why, no one has ever had a problem with our contract." Or how about this one: "I'm sure accounting lost the invoice. I'll get on it right away."

Such people are trying to get what they want from you while keeping their budgets in control. Don't be surprised: It's what they get paid to do. Top that with wanting to avoid an angry outburst from someone ill-used, and you've got a monster client.

The real problem for many writers, however, is wanting to believe that the client is a friend. But a friend hopefully wouldn't ask you to put aside your livelihood as a favor one month, let alone ask you to do it again the next, all so the friend could benefit. With friends like that, who needs enemies? It's just another reason to take the emotion out of the business.

Controlling Those Client Expectations

A writer I know recently mentioned being up int he middle of the night, sending an email, and getting a reply shortly after, and then wondering if the act telegraphed a willingness to be an indentured servant.

It's a good concern to have. Most clients make assumptions, largely unconscious and unreasoned, based on your activities. The assumptions become expectations: "Oh, Cathy is up at that hour anyway, so I should have the edits by the time I walk into the office in the morning." When Cathy actually decides to sleep that night, for a change, the client doesn't see the file when he expected it, and so gets cranky. Now Cathy has a problem to smooth over, probably without knowing that it exists. In other words, Cathy won't be dealing with the unhappy client, who might decide to go elsewhere next time, even though his unhappiness is the product of his own self-generated expectations, and not from any promise that a writer has made.

In general, it's better to let the client wait at least for a little bit. When someone wants you to do something, deliberately schedule it and negotiate a different time or day, at least early on in the relationship, so you aren't taken for granted. When people give you initial deadlines, they generally have added some padding in to help their own planning. Don't push everything to the last minute, but make sure that clients understand you are busy, in demand, and can't automatically drop everything for them.

You can telegraph this attitude in a number of ways. I know one writer who never immediately answers an email, even when possible. Instead, everything sits for at least a few hours in the inbox, even if it's possible to send an immediate answer. Another writer uses the capabilities of her email system to write responses whenever and then to configure the email not to transmit until after a specific time in the morning. When someone calls, you could explain that you are busy and schedule a time later in the day to continue a conversation.

Sure, if you know the client and there's an emergency, jump right on something as a favor. But there's an old saying: When you want something done, ask a busy person. So make sure you appear appropriately busy so that clients appreciate what a break they get when you devote some of your time to them.

When Things Go Wrong, Negotiate

Yesterday I mentioned that when things are going well, you should continue marketing with a focus on things you might not ordinarily do. When things go wrong, yes, you market, but you might also consider negotiation. Instead of taking whatever life deals out, see how much you can change more toward your advantage. I had a real example happen yesterday when a publication decided literally at the last minute because of a mix-up on its end that it needed substantial changes to a story. It was pulling the article from the current issue and now the piece was no longer accepted. I did start gnashing my teeth and began writing an email to the editor because I couldn't afford to disrupt my cash flow further than a couple of previous setbacks had already done.

I started the email a few times - got a line or two in and tossed it. Remembering my goal - to get money - I knew that venting at the editor would do no good. So I carefully crafted a message saying that we needed to talk and that while I understood there was a mix-up on the publisher's side because I got the go-ahead from someone new who hadn't known of the history of covering a given topic, I couldn't add another invoicing cycle on top of what I had already waited.

That was the first part of my negotiation strategy - because I wanted a practical resolution, not the emotional satisfaction of screaming at someone. Next, I said that if we could work out payment issues, I'd be happy to do a few extra interviews and the rewrite "to reflect what is now a different angle and article." I was clearly indicating that additional pay over the original fee might otherwise be in question. Could I have held out for more? Sure, but I was considering the most important goal in this case - while realizing that it would largely be a case of reslanting much of what I already had in a somewhat different way.

Later that day I received a counter-proposal - a one-third "kill" fee immediately, and the remainder on rewriting the article. Because I had overbooked revenue above my target goal, I could agree to that, maintain a relationship that I expect to be a profitable one (I already had a second assignment and had negotiated a 20% rate increase between the two), and still have the cash flow for the full goal, with the extra to follow in the future. So I agreed.

Did I get everything I wanted? Of course not! But did I get what I needed then? Absolutely. And if that hadn't done it, I would have looked at other possible negotiation strategies. Negotiating out of a problem won't always work - it didn't do a thing when early this year I had a client declare bankruptcy. But it's a potential tool that might get you out of a jam, so don't assume that you only use negotiation before you start an assignment. Any time an issue comes up - payment, or maybe a sudden change in an assignment or deadline - negotiation is useful. And it's a great deal more effective than tying yourself up in knots or posting on a writers' board how angry you are with someone.

Three Marketing Approaches When Things Are Good

I can feel it now - that warm comfortable sense of well-being that comes on when my schedule is full. But it's the same warm sense that reportedly comes on before you freeze to death. Whenever you feel that things are going right, you can depend that they will soon go wrong. So when things are looking up for business, that's when it's time to knuckle down and push forward on your marketing. However, there is a difference between times like these and when things are slower. Here are some ways to make your marketing pay off:

• Replace clients. Because you're in a strong position, seek replacements for your least desirable clients. You aren't in a rush, so begin testing a few new clients, see which ones provide the most satisfaction, and then begin weaning yourself from the ones that aren't worth the time you spend on them.


• Think long term. Different companies or publications take various amounts of time to bring into your business fold. When things are going well, you can begin developing relationships with the ones that take longer. These are often the greater prestige and better paying prospects.


• New areas. You might have wanted to move into new areas - whether subjects, industries, or types of writing. When you go into something new, you often can't prove the value you can in more established areas. So when things are going well, you're in a position to take some lower-paying work, if necessary, to establish your credits in the new area so that you'll be in good shape to get the better pay. When things are leaner, you may be more dependent on the revenue from each assignment, and so won't necessarily have this opportunity to develop your business.

Marketing isn't a uniform and unchanging activity. Let yours be sensitive to where your business is at any time and shift your focus and approach to make marketing increasingly effective.

The Dangers of Big Projects

At some point in your writing, you'll get involved with a project that seems great - a large sum of money (think five or six figures), work guaranteed for a period of time, and all looking right with the world. But the big-ticket job can, in its own way, be as dangerous as the assignments that pay too little:

• No client should be too important. You don't want any one client to provide too much of your income; losing it can become a devastating financial blow. That's what can happen with a big ticket project, particularly if it's out of scale with the rest of your work. If something like this does seem likely to happen, then consider pushing to expand the rest of your business to keep it in balance. After all, few clients offer such projects on a regular basis, and you don't want to become used to nice money only to see it dry up.


• Emphasize the client, not the project. Real success comes from relationships. A big project may seem a delight, but keep it in perspective. Big projects just don't happen as often as smaller ones and so are harder to find. Clients that provide significant revenue over smaller projects year after year are always worth more.


• Keep projects in their places. When you have the chance of a big project, there's always that temptation to do nothing else. But that has its price. If a five figure project keeps you from maintaining ties with important long-term, high-value clients or from ongoing marketing, it disrupts your work flow after it's over. And then, 30 to 60 days after it's over, you'll take a hit to your cash flow because you didn't keep your business pipeline filled. Always have projects and customers fit your business model. See if you can negotiate and schedule the work to be part-time over some number of months. In any case, always keep marketing so that when the project is done, you aren't done for.


• Clients cancel. Many contracts have termination clauses, which means there's always a possibility that the project will suddenly end. Even if there isn't a provision, if someone stops paying, you can go to court, but it can take a long time to get satisfaction. Manage your risk so it's at a level you can tolerate.

I'm not suggesting that writers shouldn't take large projects by any means. Just use some caution and common sense so that the offer that seems to be too good to be real doesn't turn out that way.

When Contracts Aren't Enough

Reading a contract is an important task in the life of a businessperson. You agree to terms and conditions that govern how you will do business and that could come back to bite you in the posterior. But when dealing with someone new, there's an even more fundamental - checking someone's reputation.

Alex Beam in the Boston Globe wrote a column about a ghost writing firm - New York-based Penn Group - that has sued a couple of its writers, allegedly because the young owners got made at the authors. The column may be accurate, or not, and I have no idea who ultimately holds the blame for the dust-up. But I do know one thing - that type of story is enough on its own for me to shy away from doing business with a company.

No matter how beneficial a contract's terms seem to be, you should have the basic sense that you can more-or-less trust the people on the other side of the table. If you can't, it won't matter what the contract says, because someone somewhere will be ringing a lawyer.

Before considering a contract, do some some background research and check a client's reputation. If there are some red flags, then you have a chance to steer clear. It might be that a company like Penn Group actually would be good to work with. Perhaps the writers really are at fault. After all, one of the writers at least had done more than one project with the company. But we're not talking about proving something for court. Instead, you want to limit unnecessary risk when it is tied with catastrophic results. Otherwise you might find that you were playing the business version of Russian roulette.

Keeping Quiet About Your Problems

Gawker has had a couple of pieces recently that have been making the rounds on the writers boards. One is about a New Yorker writer looking for donations to pay for rescuing his digital images from a crashed hard drive. The other concerns a writer who allegedly used a pseudonym to keep touting the glories of his own writing to Gawker.

It amazes me the types of habits and predilections a writer will advertise in public. The New Yorker popular music critic has this request for up to $5,000 in donations posted on his home page - and he wasn't going to send individual thanks to the donors, though he's willing to post an "honor roll" of those who got his data life together. How the hell does he think people in the industry, including his bosses, are going to see this? Here's a clue: corporations often do things like running background and credit checks to make sure employees or job applicants aren't going to be tempted to steal or sell off inside company information.

As for promoting via a fake email address, don't writers read news stories about authors getting outed for posting anonymous reviews on their own books? Do such people really not realize that they're not as clever as they think? That many people don't know how to uncover subterfuges unless the perpetrator is unusually skilled in technology?

But before you scoff as these displays, consider what you might be doing without realizing it. Have you ever posted on a writers' board asking whether you could get away with something that might be seen as in an ethical grey area? Ever asked about something that you wouldn't want an editor or client to know? Depending on the discretion of strangers is unwise, and you never know when that editorial client might also have access to the same board.

There's nothing wrong with being ignorant of one thing or another. (If there were, we'd all be in constant trouble.) There's nothing wrong with asking for help or in asking "dumb" questions. And there's no value in pretending to be more than you are, because the truth generally works its way out.

However, there is such a thing as being too forthcoming. You hopefully wouldn't go around telling everyone in sight about your problems in relationships, money, and self-control. Why ever would you do the same for professional weaknesses? Develop relationships with colleagues you can respect, learn which ones you can trust, and ask what you need to ask so you can learn to improve. But don't take out the online equivalent of full page ads showing you dressed in fool's motley. It's a way of building and promoting a questionable reputation ... which isn't smart business.

Red Flags

I've added a new link under Resources: Red Flags. This document has a list of common red flags that should act as warning signs. Feel free to mention some of your own "favorites."

Finding Business that Fits

Many writers try to fit themselves into the perceived needs and expectations of clients - "I'm a specialist in the dietary healthcare needs of left-handed chimpanzees, as you can see from this clip (or brochure)."

Meeting the need of your client or prospect is vital. If you don't, they won't hire you. But before you rush out after every potential work lead, remember that before you fit yourself to the client's needs, you fit the client to your needs. Some won't pay enough, while others might pay enough, but wait for publication, leaving you to effectively fund their accounts payable department. A magazine might want to keep you from writing for its direct competitors, even if those titles are important revenue sources. One corporation buyer may keep changing her mind and always asking you to jump through hoops and toss your plans to the wind because she never made any plans of her own.

You can't always tell what a client will be like before you first do business with it, but after one assignment, you should have a pretty good idea. Once you know that its requirements don't fit yours, don't keep doing business there. Get one client that doesn't fit your business in one way or another, and you'll find that it affects the rest of your business in a negative way. That might seem unrealistic, but it really isn't. One disorganized client slipping its schedule can force you to say no to a long time client with an atypical tight deadline, reducing what your income could have been. A slow payer at a bad time could force you to take on work that pays far less than your target rates but that quickly sends a check that might help reduce the cash shortfall.

When you provide a service, the customer comes first. But your business supports your life and even as clients come and go, you always have to be there. Make sure that you like the fit.