There's always an excitement associated with having a new potential client reach out to you with new work. Sometimes you'll receive a very detailed brief and other times a very simple paragraph, but I can't remember a single time when I received a proposal and wasn't immediately filled with questions. The process of debriefing involves raising questions that the client hasn't even thought of, and that will help you save a lot of time; avoid disappointments and also make sure you're meeting the client's expectations. You're not supposed to be a magician who guesses what's going through other people's minds, so you shouldn't be afraid to ask questions no matter how obvious they look. This will in fact make you look professional because after all you're trying to understand your client's business in order to solve their problem as successfully as you can.

In this post I’ll share some insights and tips on how to navigate situations where your work ethic and worth may be put to test. Please keep in mind that spotting red flags doesn’t automatically mean someone is a bad client and you shouldn’t work for them. A lot of the time clients are not fully aware of the work process and value a creative person can add to a project, so some of these sentences can simply come out of ignorance.