Freelancing: Do Your Clients Value Your Time?

Yesterday was an interesting day for me. I have a client who has a very small regular order, and he is one of my oldest clients, so re-negotiations have been few and far between. But this client also expects quite a lot from me, asking for more and more, even though he is my smallest client. After I got off a 30 minute phone call with someone he wanted me to interview for a longer piece that we didn’t negotiate beyond the usual monthly quota, I asked myself: What am I doing? Does this guy even value my time, or value my work as a professional?

It struck me that those that pay the least often expect the most from you.

Then, a couple hours later, I received an Amazon gift code for a rather substantial sum in my email inbox. This was from a different client (for whom I do a different sort of work) — one of my biggest. These guys have a lot of regular, good-paying work for me. And they sent me a very nice Christmas bonus on top of everything. This company truly values me and my time and wants to establish a very positive working relationship with me.

It made me wonder if I should raise my rate for the other guy. Would he value me more if he had pay more for my services? Or would he dump me? After yesterday, I’m not sure that I would mind.