As a freelance writer or editor, you can broaden your business in two ways with new services: (1) niching into other writing/editing services or (2) stepping out into other freelance niches like marketing, video, or audio work, or administrative work.

But how do you know if it’s the right time or fit for you? Throughout my freelance career, I have pivoted into other freelance services and niched down into other freelance writing options, too. Here’s what to keep in mind.

 

Taking on Other Kinds of Editing/Writing Work

This is perhaps the easiest pivot, since you already have a track record of delivering in the writing and editing space. You have a better handle on pricing and can also bring over the lessons learned from your existing business (AKA how not to work with nightmare clients, which contract provisions protect you, how to set deadlines.)

For example, if you’ve been largely focused on academic editing services, you could continue to do those or dial that work down to shift over into business editing or fiction manuscript editing. Although the projects will look somewhat different, you aren’t making a huge change. It might be difficult to land those first few clients in your new service area if you’ve done a lot of work “branding” yourself as the academic writing expert.

When to consider making this kind of change:

• You’re feeling too much “sameness” in your work (if you look at one more academic journal article, you’ll lose your mind). New service offerings, even if you’re not pivoting into them full-time, can help add variety.
• You’re getting bored with your work and feel you’ve taken your current service offering as far as you could take it. (After 11 years of writing personal injury law blogs, not a single thing about it was challenging for me anymore.)
• You don’t want to learn something entirely new, but you do desire a little bit of change

 

Taking on Entirely New Work

It’s a much bigger change if you’re going to start offering book cover design either instead of or in addition to your current editing workload. That’s not to say it can’t be done. In fact, some writers and editors love zooming out to the big picture to make themselves more of a one-stop shop. With this, however, comes thinking about how you’re going to market yourself differently and whether you need new work samples. If you’re not as familiar with the standards, pricing, client types, and deadlines in this new service area, allocate more time to get up to speed. It can be a bit clunky especially when everything feels so smooth in your existing editing and writing business just due to your experience in that field.

For example, after years of content writing, I shifted over to offer Amazon Ads for published book authors for a time. It was a big change even though I was familiar with publishing in general. I was talking to an entirely new group of potential clients and did not have all the kinks worked out yet. More on that later as I walk you through how to approach a test run of a new service area.

Here’s when to consider making a shift like this:

• You’re increasingly bored or frustrated with your existing service offering and want to see if you can retire it or dial it down to 20% or less of your total work. Trying out a new service area helps you see whether that’s possible in terms of income and whether you like the new offering enough to do more of it.
• You feel stagnant and want to continue growing or you want to protect yourself from risks, downturns, influence of AI, etc. that you’re worried about with your current service offering.
• Your clients keep asking you if you offer service XYZ and you’re saying no, meaning you’re losing the opportunity to do more work with clients you like. An editor who also loves cover design could be a killer combination!

 

Managing a Test Run

A new service offering, even one similar to your existing work, is not always a good fit. Therefore, don’t put the cart before the horse and invest in a total rebrand. I’m really glad I didn’t do this with my Amazon Ads offering, because I ended up phasing it out after just four months. The great thing about trying something new is that you’re not obligated to stick with it so long as you didn’t promise people that it’s your new focus.

Instead, here is how to approach that:

• Set up a test run of a few months or a handful of projects. Ideally, this will come from your existing clients or people who already know, like, and trust you. Bonus: these projects can be your first work samples and/or testimonials if they go well!
• Offer special pricing for these first few projects with clear boundaries and endcaps. For example, with my Amazon Ads offering, I made it clear I was trying this out and only signed three-month contracts with a few people who I already liked and had asked me to run ads for them. This gives people an incentive to try out this new offering while not locking you in to some big project/long timeline in case you end up hating what you’re doing. This also prevents long-term underpricing since the special pricing is for a limited period.
• Set a deadline for when you’ll decide if you will continue to offer this new service. I chose four months because during that time I’d be able to work on several of these projects.
• Do not build a website, pay for a new logo, spend all your time on LinkedIn, etc. to make it seem as though this is your “new thing.” If you need to pick up a few test run clients, you can market this as a special opportunity: “I have openings for up to three clients with my new service.”
• If you hate the new offering, conclude your contracts and exit the service. No harm done: you learned something new. And now you can try another service offering if you want!

I stopped offering 1:1 Amazon Ads because I just didn’t enjoy it; the clients wanted too much in terms of reporting, the results were randomly effective, and I did not like the constant back and forth emails. So I  wrapped it up and put that behind me.

Keep these tips in mind as you think about whether offering a new service makes sense for you.

 

Laura Pennington Briggs is the founder and CEO of the Freelance Coach. A two-time TEDx speaker on how freelancing is changing the economy and the host of the weekly Advanced Freelancing podcast, Laura has helped over 15,000 freelancers start and scale their business. She’s an expert on systems, project and client management, marketing a solopreneur business, delegating to team members, retainers, and developing multiple income streams for writers of all stripes. Laura is the author of five books, including the Six Figure Freelancer, How to Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business, and award-winning Remote Work for Military Spouses. She’s also the founder of Operation Freelance, a national nonprofit providing free entrepreneurship training to military spouses worldwide.

Many freelancers end up working with clients who are not an ideal fit for them especially at the beginning of their business, but bad clients and even toxic clients can still land in your lap as your business grows, and as you get savvier. Understanding what makes a toxic client is critical for helping you to determine how to avoid them, how to spot them in an onboarding call or intake call, and how to respond and terminate the relationship if necessary.

 

What Is a Toxic Client?

We’ve all had our share of less-than-ideal clients, but a toxic client goes beyond that.

A toxic client, simply put, is someone who drains your energy and treats you poorly. You begin to develop a sense of dread or frustration in dealing with them. Toxic clients are typically overwhelming and overbearing, cross communication boundaries, and have numerous extra requests for you and most of the time they want these done without any additional pay.

Toxic clients tend to generate an emotional response in the freelancers they work with and it’s common to feel things like anger or frustration, but in the worst-case scenario, they cause you to feel entirely burned out. If you work with clients, you generally enjoy working for, it’s a little bit easier to identify toxic clients because your feelings about these people are so much different than your other clients. Recognizing some of the patterns for what can develop into a toxic client is critical for helping you stop this situation before it escalates.

While it’s important to do everything you can to possibly identify a toxic freelance client, you cannot always identify them in advance. Sometimes these people sneak up on you and come out of nowhere. They seem fine in the intake call or don’t give you information that would indicate their true nature. If one slips through the cracks, however, try to notice the signs of their behavior sooner rather than later.

Here are four signs to keep in mind when identifying toxic clients.

 

#1: Mismatched Expectations

If your freelance client is pushing you to be available around the clock, or expects you to answer text messages, phone calls or emails overnight or over the weekends, this is an early sign that they may need their boundaries adjusted. In some cases, with a normal client, you’re able to walk this back and explain your business office hours and why you won’t be able to respond during these times.

You may even be able to redirect them into a weekly or biweekly call to avoid all of these issues stacking up in your email inbox. With a toxic client, however, they will refuse to adjust their behavior and leave you suffering the consequences. They may even argue that you’re being unreasonable.

Likewise, if they ask for five rounds of revision on a smaller project or bombard your first submitted piece with far too many comments and change requests, beware.

 

#2: Bad Discussions About Past Freelancers

How a client talks about their past freelancers tells you a lot about their experience in this field and whether or not they understand how to interact with freelance professionals appropriately. If they mentioned in a call that their previous five editors or writers all failed or were difficult to work with, the odds are there’s a problem with the client, not the freelancers.

It’s normal for some of your clients to come in with bad experiences with a handful of past freelancers, especially if the client was new to things and perhaps hired the wrong person but listen to the way they talk about their freelancers. If they’re using strong language like this person was an idiot or this person almost destroyed my business, be aware that they may have unrealistic expectations and are likely to blame you for problems that probably weren’t your fault.

I like to ask clients, “tell me about your experience working with freelancers in the past,” as an open-ended question and see how they respond.

 

#3: Demanding That You Prove Your Worth

Toxic clients tend to want you to prove your worth or talk about things like ROI or how your work will transform their life or business immediately. Toxic clients might push you to prove your worth as early as the initial phone call. They may not be willing to sign a contract for longer than a month or do anything other than a sample project because they don’t trust you.

They may be comparing you against five or six other freelancers to see who will allow them to push the boundaries. Toxic clients may try to pay you 10% upfront and then claim they’ll pay the rest when they are satisfied with the completed project. Be aware, this is a potential trap and a major red flag as they may never actually be “satisfied” enough to send the remaining funds owed.

 

#4: Refusal to Pay on Your Terms

Each freelancer comes to the table with their own requests about payment, be it late payment fees, deposits that are due or regular payment schedule. If your client is requesting that every aspect of your contract be updated to adhere to their terms or pushes back when their invoice is due and they’re not making the payment, this is an early sign you may be involved with a toxic client.

In general, it’s a good idea to have some measure of good faith, such as a significant deposit or full payment upfront to ensure that the client has the means to pay you. This keeps you from chasing after the client for weeks or months, especially if you have the client who says they’re not satisfied with the final product and refuses to release that money until you are finished with a version they appear to be happy with.

 

What To Do If You Think a Client Might Be Toxic?

Not every client is a full bad apple. Some of them may have no idea how their behavior is affecting you and I always suggest trying to walk it back unless the client has crossed some major line already. Here are a few tips for how to handle clients who are pushing the boundaries:

• Call the situation out early and address it.
  • Example: “I’ve noticed we’ve had a lot of back and forth on the first draft. Here are some ideas I have to streamline that process.”
  • Example: “In the future, please direct all communication to the Google Doc/Email/Trello board. I’m not available to answer texts or Facebook Messenger, especially after hours.”
• If the client speaks to you unprofessionally, reference it in the moment and explain why it’s a problem. You can say phrases such as, “I don’t know if you mean to come across this way”, or, “I want to make sure I understand what you just said because it feels inappropriate”.
• If you are in a relationship with a toxic client, decide if you can part ways. Regardless of the value of the total project, it can be detrimental to the rest of your business to continue working with a toxic client. Think about the actual amount of time you’re putting in with this client and you can probably figure out pretty quickly that you’re not getting what you’re worth. They may also be causing a physical, mental or emotional toll and these clients can push you to burnout.

One of the biggest problems with working with someone who is extremely difficult is that these negative aspects tend to bleed over to your other clients even if you don’t intend them to. You may be showing up frustrated or less able to focus for your other clients.

Over time, you might determine red flags specific to you. As a business owner, remember that you’re in the driver’s seat to determine whether or not you want to work with someone.

 

Laura Pennington Briggs is the founder and CEO of the Freelance Coach. A two-time TEDx speaker on how freelancing is changing the economy and the host of the weekly Advanced Freelancing podcast, Laura has helped over 15,000 freelancers start and scale their business. She’s an expert on systems, project and client management, marketing a solopreneur business, delegating to team members, retainers, and developing multiple income streams for writers of all stripes. Laura is the author of five books, including the Six Figure Freelancer and How to Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business. She’s also the founder of Operation Freelance, a national nonprofit providing free entrepreneurship training to military spouses worldwide.