I’m still at that stage where I’m working to put that roof over my head, but I’m confident in my ability to do that so I’ll soon be able to weed out the bad clients, as you said.

I’ll try not giving anymore discounts and raising my estimates to see if I’m a) happier and b) more profitable and c) less stressed out.

Your awesome writing and articles designs have inspired me to do better quality work. Keep up the great work, Kyle!

I don’t want to indulge the type of client that is looking and asking for a discount or deal. If you do give a discount it should be you offering it, not them asking for it.

Raising your estimates and prices is just a way to weed out the good clients from the bad. Turning down some clients will let you focus your time on either your current relationships or finding new valuable ones.

Im not freelancing full time so it’s easy for me to say all this when the roof on my head isn’t depending on this work.

“How can I get a discount on that?”

“If I pay up front, could you give me a 10% discount?”

“What if I extend the deadline. Will that make it cheaper?”

I inevitably give in to get the gig, but I regret it later. I rush to complete the project in the set amount of time instead of giving it the attention to detail it deserves.

I might try what you suggested and double my hours on the next quote. Maybe then I’ll produce a long lasting design that I’d be proud to put in my portfolio.

I think a recent tweet I read from John Maeda is appropriate here:

“Slow gets things done faster in the end. Because they get done right the first time.”

These last few months, I have been clamping down on this as well. I told myself that I would actually turn down jobs if I was busy, or at least delay them for later, and I even raised my prices a bit, just to shoo off those who were interested in a quickie-fix for their website.

Nice post layout but even better article!