How Freelancers Should Respond to a Client that Needs Your Help But is too Cheap to Pay for It

I received this email a while back from a client of mine, he writes:

"I am creating return address labels and need to separate the design elements of the logo you created for me. I need elements of the picture along with the business name and I want to add the website. Can you tell me how to do that?"

What does this mean to a freelancer?
Well a couple of things are going on here:
A) The client tried to do this on his own - couldn't, and now he wants to see if I can bail him out.
B) By saying, "Can you tell me how to do that", he saying that he doesn't really see the need to pay me for my assistance.
C) The client feels that since it wouldn't take much time on my part, the service/expertise I provide should be free - even though he couldn't figure it out himself.

My reply:
"You’ll want to use the Adobe Illustrator, .ai file on the cd I gave to you – that file will allow you or someone else to separate all of the individual pieces of the logo. I am guessing you’ll next want to save the artwork out as a jpg and import it into Word or wherever you printing the labels – the process can be a bit tricky, but that’s essentially what I would do.

I am guessing it will take me 30-60 minutes, is it worth to bring me on board to do this for you or do you want to see if you can knock it out?"

What message my reply sends back to the client:
A) You have all of the materials you need to get the result you want
B) The result you want may take more expertise than you thought
C) I would be happy to provide that assistance, but I will bill for my expertise and time
D) If you'd like to figure this out on your own, that's okay too

Here's the bottom line, as a freelancer you're going to see this kind of behavior all of the time, in most cases it's not done maliciously - just people trying to save as much money as they can.

Heck, I've been in this situation before, but I know if I don't have the tools or expertise to get the result I want, I have to pay someone to do it for me. There's no need to get upset or offended, or even get on your soapbox and preach to the client about your value - just let them make the decision if they want to try to figure it out or have you step in and do it right.

If you liked how I answered this client and you sometimes get frustrated with clients saying these types of things to you, you'll definitely want to check out my new book coming in the first quarter of 2008 called Verbal Judo for Designers. It's jammed packed with the top 100 things clients say and do to try to get the best of you as a freelancer. Of course I include a gentle but powerful way you can defend yourself against each example. Look for it in the first quarter of 2008!