The Four Kinds of Freelance Clients and How To Manage Each One

Freelancing advice often insists that we should communicate relentlessly. Send an email, follow up, send updates, ask for input, rinse, repeat. But that doesn’t take into consideration the clients that:

Have more important things to do.
Want to give you free rein and see what you come up with.
Simply hate talking.

I’ve worked with clients who left me alone for the full duration of the project. I’ve also worked with clients who wanted to be in the loop on a daily basis. Both of these types are fine. But, when taken to an extreme, they turn into something else. Something malignant. Respectively:

The client that loses interest completely.
The client that wants to micromanage you.

We, then, have a total of four types:

Prefers involvement (positive).
Prefers involvement too much (micromanager, negative).
Prefers autonomy (positive).
Prefers autonomy (no interest, negative).

Here’s how to manage each type of client.

How to manage freelance clients who prefer involvement

A client’s daily involvement can be a very good thing. Nobody knows the client’s business like they do, and daily communication can help you avoid costly mistakes.

Make sure to leverage this to your advantage. Here are a few ways:

Send daily updates of work done to the client. This will build rapport and establish a quick feedback loop.
When you get ideas that aren’t in the client’s specifications, bounce them off the client. This will build trust and possibly expand the scope of the project.
After a while, you may find it prudent to ask for equity in the project. You’d be surprised how many clients are open to this idea (but only after you build a sufficient amount of trust).

Building a relationship in this way often leads to 90% of My Freelance Work Comes From Recurring Clients and Referralsreferrals and recurring work, which is something all freelancers should aim for.

How to manage freelance clients who micromanage

There’s a line that clients should never cross. Their input can sometimes cross over from useful to overbearing and meddling.

When this happens, you can feel it organically: you begin to dread message notifications, you find the project increasingly tiring, and you struggle to be productive. It is crucial that you identify the problem early and set limits for the client:

Set aside some time during the day for feedback (a daily meeting if they insist).
State clearly that you are the technical expert in the relationship and that the client should restrict their feedback to high-level concepts.

If all else fails, turn off your notifications for work sessions and turn them on for communication near the end of the day.

If the client doesn’t accept these changes, see if you can tough it out and consider it a learning experience. If it becomes too taxing, you are likely better off without them.

How to manage freelance clients who prefer autonomy

Having a full day of quiet focus is a rare blessing in today’s world. The clients who practice a delegate-and-forget approach can make this possible for you. Then you just have to worry about the distractions from your family, friends, and social media (and the occasional pet climbing on your keyboard).

When it comes to clients like this, it’s best to respect their wishes and only report on milestones or when crucial feedback is needed.

I’ve always enjoyed working for such clients. One was a billionaire who hired me to work on his side project - an online RPG with no relation whatsoever to the client’s main business.

I did my most creative work for such clients. Nothing stifles creativity like constant notifications and petty pressures.

How to manage freelance clients who lose interest in the project

In this case, the adage “it’s better to prevent than to cure” is crucial. You can’t do much about a client disappearing mid-project, but you can prepare for it:

On larger projects, either charge something in advance or charge weekly. Make the sunk cost high for them if they consider abandoning ship.
Look for telltale signs of a disinterested client: they don’t go into specifics, they say things like “we’ll cross that bridge when we get there”, they have no long-term plans, or they take days to respond to messages.

Remember the billionaire from the previous paragraph? He gradually lost focus over time, delegated the project to someone else, and eventually abandoned it altogether. It’s understandable. Priorities change. The important thing for us as freelancers is to protect ourselves from the consequences.

Don’t neglect the basics

Whichever kind of client you’re dealing with, don’t forget the things that make you a great freelancer in the first place. Managing your freelance clients is only a piece of the puzzle.

Whether your client prefers a lot of communication or a little, this communication should be clear, honest, precise, and written in good English. Most importantly, your quality of work should never suffer because of it.

Worst come to worst, remember: it’s better to fire a bad client than let them ruin your joy - and potentially your reputation. Firing a client can open unexpected doors, and potentially lead to How To Use Downtime Between Projects as a Freelancergrowth and new opportunities.