Long-term assignments can do wonders for a freelancer. Too much of it,
though, can cause you trouble down the road. Read on to see why, and how
to avoid the pitfalls.

Recent tips have been geared towards those at the dawn of their freelance
careers. This tip offers guidance for more established consultants.
Specifically, it’s aimed for people who are in a staff-augmentation role,
where they hold a single client for months at a time.

It’s not uncommon to encounter a revolving-door assignment, which
means there’s no set end date. In the larger companies, especially, such
contracts can extend some number of years. We call this Client
Love (well, we do now) and it’s a client’s way of saying they like
your work.

Client Love can yield several benefits for the freelancer. We’ll start
with the important one: it does wonders for your pocketbook. Maintaining a
steady paycheck for long periods of time — and at consultant rates, no
less — can put you on stable financial ground even in a slow job market.

Word-of-mouth advertising can also land you work in other departments once
you’ve wrapped up your current assignment. You’ll likely use the same
contract as before, so you won’t have to pay your attorney for a review.
(Not that we don’t love our attorneys, but…) Not to mention, since you’re
already “on the inside,” you’ll know well in advance whether that next
project is Hell On Earth. (Let’s be honest: there’s usually fibbing on
both sides of the interview table.)

Client Love’s rewards go both ways. A client has to train someone they
bring in fresh off the street, whereas someone who already knows the lay of
the land (political and technical) can hit the ground running. There’s
also the risk such a new hire is a terrific faker who slipped through the
screening process. Not to mention, holding on to a consultant means
retaining knowledge of any custom processes or products they implmemented.
Such historical knowledge can be invaluable in times of crisis.

Win-Win-Lose?

This win-win situation is not without its drawbacks. Client Love can
smother you to the point that it stifles your networking and stagnates your
portfolio.

It can also stagnate your pay. If you play your cards right — pick
projects that enhance your value — you should be up for a rate increase
every so often. Likely, the rate increases on the open market will exceed
anything you’re able to negotiate with your current client.

In fact, you stand to lose value over time if you don’t change
clients. One of a freelancer’s many offerings is their knowledge of the
Outside World: they’ve seen other places and bring fresh ideas to the
table. This is especially true in the technology industry, where there the
landscape changes frequently and it can be costly to research new ideas
from scratch.

It’s also tough to maintain your survival skills — sales and marketing –
when they go unused. (Think of the poor geezer who’s just returned to the
pick-up scene after an extended hiatus. Same thing.) In turn, you’ll face
the same problems that plague long-time employees when they start looking:
they don’t know how to play the sales game, they don’t know how to market
themselves, and they don’t know what they’re worth.

Finding Balance

You don’t have to let Client Love go down that road. You can have
your cake and eat it, too. Learn when to tell your manager, “I think we
should see other people.” Be honest and explain your reasons: perhaps you
feel stifled, you need to expand your skill set beyond what they can offer,
whatever. They’ll be disappointed, but they’ll understand. They may even
have contacts elsewhere to help you find your next gig. If they’re the
spiteful sort who hassle you for leaving, well, then leaving’s an even
better idea than you thought.

There’s sometimes no such thing as a “perfect” time to leave, so you pick
the best time and stick to it. Several “just two more weeks” extensions
can inhibit your ability to land new work, or cut into that
all-too-valuable free time between gigs.

Last, but not least, be sure to leave the door open for a return
engagement. Repeat work with the same client still entails some of the
risks described above, but not quite to the same degree.