Things I stopped doing to run my freelance business better

This isn't a "here's what you should do" post. It's more of a behind-the-scenes look at habits and decisions I quietly dropped over the years – some took way too long to figure out, some happened after one too many difficult projects, but eventually.. all of them were worth it!

✗ Stopped working without a deposit

No deposit, no start. That's the rule – and I'm working on sticking to it across the board.

Where I still make exceptions sometimes is with long-term or repeat clients, people I've worked with multiple times and have a real working relationship with. But even that I'm rethinking, because there have been cases where exactly that trust led to awkward situations – payments delayed, timelines complicated, and me wishing I'd just kept the same rule for everyone. So that's next on the list.

A deposit isn't about distrust. It's about commitment – theirs and mine. It tells me the project is real and I can block time for it without second-guessing myself.

✗ Stopped justifying my prices

Just send the number and believe in it – that's where I've landed after years of over-explaining.

If the budget doesn't work, the first thing we look at is scope. What can we do within what they have? What gets cut, what gets prioritized? Most of the time that conversation works out. And sometimes – if the project is genuinely interesting and hits at least one of my three criteria (remember the rule of three Ps?) – I might be more flexible. But that's my choice based on what the project gives me back, not because someone pushed back on my rate.

The scope moves before the price does. That's the default!

✗ Stopped saying yes to rush projects just because I technically had the time

Rush work costs more, and if the client can't cover that – the timeline adjusts, simple as that.

It's not about being difficult. It's about the fact that rushing means working outside of normal hours, and those hours belong to my baby, my family, and my own health. Sacrificing that for a project that "needs to be done yesterday" isn't something I'm willing to do anymore – not without it being reflected in the price. Urgency is a premium, and it always will be.

✗ Stopped being available on weekends (mostly)

Okay, if I'm working on a weekend I'll respond to something urgent. But the expectation that I'm always on? Gone!

This one comes with a backstory – at my first serious full-time job, we were all "trained" to be available basically around the clock. Weekend messages, late night replies, the whole thing. And that's probably why I'm as productive as I am today (thanks for that, I guess 😅), but it also created this reflex of constant availability that took years to shake.

Here's the thing though – most clients don't work on weekends either. The ones who expect weekend responses... well, that's useful information about what working with them long-term would look like.

✗ Stopped keeping work in my portfolio just because I like it

Every month I go through my portfolio and clean it out – and "I made this and it was fun" is not enough of a reason to keep something there.

The question I ask is: does this attract the kind of clients I want? Does it show the work I want to be hired for? If the answer is no – it goes. Even if I love it. Even if it took forever. A portfolio is a business tool, not an archive, and showing the wrong work attracts the wrong clients – or no clients at all, which is worse.

Speaking of portfolios – if you're not sure yours is actually working for you and attracting the right clients, I wrote a guide on exactly this. Portfolio That Books Clients – guide for creative freelancers. Use code FOLIO25 for 25% off! Grab it free →

✗ Stopped waiting for the "right moment" to raise my prices

There is no right moment. There's just now or later, and later always costs more.

Prices go up constantly and nobody sends a memo about it – groceries, rent, software subscriptions, all of it. If I'm not raising my rates in proportion to that, I'm earning less every year while working the same amount. So now I just raise them. No big announcement, no long explanation – new projects get new rates, and that's it.

✗ Stopped starting projects without real clarity on what we're building

This one sounds obvious but it took me longer than I'd like to admit.

Now, before I start anything, I ask a lot of questions. Who's the audience, what does success look like, what's the actual business goal behind the visual ask, what's been tried before. And only once I have all of that do I start – because the alternative, starting with a vague brief and figuring it out as you go, always ends in revisions that could have been avoided and energy spent fixing things instead of making them.

A thorough brief conversation at the start is the cheapest part of the whole project. Took me a while to treat it that way, but here we are.

The Brief Gap-Finder Checklist in my Client Process Kit was basically built for this – it catches everything a vague brief leaves out before it turns into a problem three weeks in. Seven tools for the client side of freelance work, all in one place. (Also included in Good Work Isn't Enough mini-course if you're already in) Check it out →

None of this happened overnight, and some I'm still working on (the weekend phone thing, if I'm being real). But every single one made running this business feel less like reacting to everything and more like actually being in charge of it.

What's something you stopped doing that changed things for you? Drop it in the comments 👇

And if all of this resonates and you want to go deeper on building your freelance business the right way – my mini-course Good Work Isn't Enough is currently in early access at a lower price, and there's an extra $10 off with code COMMUNITY. This won't last long!

As always, thank you for reading,