If you want to build a truly successful freelance career, it’s important to start developing your mindset. One of the most important areas to do this is around client value.

When you first start out, or even when you’re just going through slow patches, it’s easy to look at any and every client and just be grateful they’re willing to work with you. Be careful though, because that’s a trap! Your work and your time is valuable and it’s important to treat them that way.

Not only does it leave you vulnerable to clients and businesses that are using your enthusiasm to get cheap or free work out of you, it holds you back from focusing on the clients who really pay your bills.  (That link is to a post I wrote after hearing that Blavity doesn’t pay its writers. I encourage you to read through it regardless of what kind of freelance work you do, since it touches on some very important themes around freelancing overall.)

We’re moving on to week 2 of this month’s challenge and building off your client roster. (If you haven’t had a chance to put yours together, no worries! We’re still early on in the month and you can easily catch up by making a list of all the clients you’ve ever worked with.)

This week though, we’re going deeper and taking a look at what each of those clients contributes to your freelance business across a year’s time. That can get kind of tricky depending on how long you’ve worked with a client or if you’re not sure where that relationship is going, so I’ve put a few tips here in the forums.

If you’re using a spreadsheet, just enter a yearly dollar value next to each client’s name. You might be surprised to see which clients are really paying your bills.  

Megan.

P.S. In other news, I found a great new tool for making professional-looking newsletters. Check it out here!