Should You Stick with the Little Guys?

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Credit: Michelle Tribe on Flickr

Most freelancers have an assortment of clients, ranging from high profile clients offering big paychecks to little known, lower paying jobs. Many seasoned veterans advocate cutting off low paying ‘bottom feeders,’ with the argument that they soak up time from your workday that you should spend on higher paying endeavors.  That logic is true, but I’ve had many months where I welcomed those checks that trickled in from some of my smaller, tried and true customers.

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of working with low profile, lower paying clients.

Pro: Keep your Bread and Butter

• Steady Work:  Many smaller clients don’t have the time or expense to house PR people, writers or event planners.  They’re happy to farm out these projects to dependable freelancers with whom they’ve built a relationship, meaning work will come to you.
• Word of Mouth:  Smaller clients talk to other small clients and are likely to pass your name along.
• Less Red Tape:  With a smaller company, you’re more apt to be connected with the right people at the start.  You’ll spend less time waiting for answers or sorting through unnecessary information. You’ll get your job done quicker, effectively increasing your hourly rate.
• More creativity:  Smaller clients are often more welcoming to your ideas and less dictated by corporate decisions.

Con: Ditch the Little Guy

• Opportunity Cost:  This saying is true: “time is money.” The time you spent on a low paying job is time that you could have dedicated toward a higher paying one.
• Instability: Small businesses come and go, and a small ship is more likely to sail away than a solid, established one. Small shops may also be slow to pay or keep freelancers at the bottom of their payroll.
• Spinning your Wheels:  If all your jobs are small with low pay, you may feel frustrated with your career.  You may miss out on the experience to produce better work, or lack the satisfaction of seeing your income jump from landing a juicy assignment.
• Annoyance factor: Some small clients can be high-maintenance: they don’t know what they want, they expect too much of you, or they don’t have the budget to back up their needs.

So what’s the answer?

As with most aspects of a freelance lifestyle, it’s a personal decision. Some freelancers use a strict dollar limit as a requirement to taking any work.  Others allow a more flexible pay scale, provided the rate is respectable to the profession.  But most freelancers probably end up striving towards a careful balance of higher-end and lower-end clients.

To decide what’s right for you, take a look at all your clients on paper.  If you’re happy with the distribution of income and your flow of work, continue along as you are. But if you are heavily weighted in the low-paying end, consider rearranging your priorities to enable you to seek some higher payers. After all, freedom of choice is one of the finer aspects of being a freelancer.

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by Michelle Tribe.