When you freelance for awhile, you start to hear the same lines over and over from people trying to hire you. These are some of my favorites, and I’ve learned to just take them with a grain of salt. They’re not always untrue, but they’re cliche enough that I raise my eyebrow a bit when I hear them. Please note that clients are great people with solid ideas and we work together to create things that are special. I’m just poking a bit of fun at potential clients in general. If you can’t handle it, perhaps we wouldn’t be a good fit 😉
“We’ve got a lot more work if you can just do this one at a discount.”
Great. So if I let you take advantage of me now, you’ve got a lot more chances to do it again in the future? Sign me up!
“We’ve gotten a lot of interest from VCs and investors…funding is pretty much a done deal.”
Deals fall through. Funding is hard and rarely happens. This is not to say that it won’t, but it’s a bad reason to take a freelance gig, in my opinion.
“This has never been done.”
It almost certainly has. Probably many times. If it hasn’t, perhaps there’s a very good reason.
“Someone will steal my idea.”
They won’t. Ideas are next to worthless. Execution counts.
“Would you be willing to work for equity only?”
No.
“This shouldn’t be that difficult.”
And yet it is. Weird.
“I’ll get that check in the mail.”
🙂
If you have any to add, share them in the comments.