Had a moment last week about those 'just say no' freelancer rants

I always rolled my eyes at people posting about how saying no to bad clients was the secret to success. Like sure, easy for you to say when you have a full pipeline. Last week a client moved a deadline from Tuesday to Friday morning at 9pm Monday night. I was already 30 hours deep and they wanted a full rewrite. I said no. I actually said no. Then I emailed my other client asking to push their project by 2 days and they said yes. First time I ever tried it and I didn't lose anything. Has anyone else had saying no actually work out better than they expected?

3 comments

3 Comments

garcia.wren20d ago

Started small with a similar thing last year. Had a client who kept asking for "quick fixes" that always turned into full day rewrites. Finally told them no on a Friday afternoon when they wanted me to redo an entire landing page by Monday. Sent a polite but firm message saying I couldn't do it. They came back the next week offering to pay double for rush jobs moving forward. The other clients I was scared to say no to ended up being totally fine with adjusted timelines too. Realized I had been making up worst case scenarios in my head that never actually happened.

the_daniel19d ago

Hilarious how we're all just professional mind readers with terrible predictions. You literally played yourself into thinking you'd lose a client by setting a boundary, and instead they came back with a bigger wallet. I swear our brains are wired to assume every "no" is a career ending move when half the time the client is just testing how much free overtime they can squeeze out of us. They probably sat there after your Friday message like "oh no, we actually have to pay human rates now." Always funny watching the panic turn into profit once you stop being a doormat.

brian_hart19d ago

@garcia.wren nailed it with that realization about making up worst case scenarios. The mental stories we tell ourselves about what will happen if we say no are almost always way worse than reality. Once you actually do it and see the world doesn't end, it's like a weight lifts off your shoulders and you wonder why you waited so long.