Dealing With Difficult People

Hi,

I just started freelance writing full time after being laid off. Luckily I've found two clients, one is great. Stupid, stupid me...learning process with the other one. Basically, I am writing two-page reports for him, we agreed on a set price based on my hourly rate.

The problem? He's a huge time waster. He calls me and goes over everything. He nitpicks everything. The worst part? I agreed to it. I figure I'm working an extra hour for free for each one (there are about 10, five left to do). I agreed to stop by tomorrow, at the beginning of the process, again, dumb, but I didn't think these reports were going to take so long. Now I really want to clarify that this meeting will be BRIEF.

I feel stuck. Stuck, because I don't know if I should suck it up, as I signed the agreement on a per project basis, not an hourly rate. I don't think he would skip out on paying me, but I don't know. Also, I realize it's a delicate situation - I don't want to offend a client who could bring me future work. Oh, believe, me, I would up my rate and amend the agreement a lot...but he could be a source of work down the road, and freelance writing is all word of mouth.

Should I just look at this as a good learning experience to factor in everything in the agreement next time, or should I say something, like that I will have to start billing for extra time? Or that I can only stop by for 15 minutes? I would just really like some advice.

I suppose you could clarify what "brief" means but I doubt you get any relief. My suggestion is to chalk it up to the learning curve. Eventually you'll get better at sizing up your prospects and more clearly defining your services.

Best of luck,
Gail