Have you ever had a client cancel on you as a freelancer? How do you deal with this?
Thankfully for me, a majority of my freelance income comes from writing articles so it’s difficult for someone to cancel on me once I’ve written the article. The only time I had a situation similar to a cancellation was when I wrote an article and the author didn’t want to publish it. I said fine. I took it and published it on my own site and added a few links that made me some money over time. No hard feelings.
For those of you looking to teach a skill or provide a service as a freelancer, this is the article about cancellations that you need to read.
What should you do about a cancellation?
I reached out to the members of the freelancing hall of fame to see how they’ve dealt with cancellations. Below are the responses.
Set an expectation in advance.
How do you cure a hangover? Don’t get so damn wasted!
Dealing with cancellations is the same. Create a plan in advance. Will you charge for a last minute cancellation? Will you be flexible?
The goal is to work this out with your client so that both sides are aware of expectations and what will be tolerated.
It all depends on the relationship with the client.
My friend recently had a client flop on him last minute. He would’ve normally been upset, but he didn’t mind because they have a strong relationship. He’ll often give an extra ten minutes of guitar lessons or make adjustments at the last minute.
This is rare and usually takes a few months or even years of consistently working together to get to this level.
When you and your client are comfortable and have a long term relationship, you shouldn’t let one cancellation get in the way.
Cut the client.
Life’s too short to be waiting on a flop. If someone cancels on you often, give them the axe. Find someone that will actually respect your time.
That’s how you can deal with cancellations as a freelancer. How have you dealt wit ha cancellation in the past? Have you tried something else that works?
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