I'm a freelance PR. I've got three clients on monthly retainer and other that I invoice monthly on a more ad-hoc basis. No complaints. I have monthly meetings with all my clients - some via skype/ some face to face and with my two oldest clients these are built into the monthly fee. I'm based in London - one is up North, the other in Dorset. My other client is in Devon - quite a distance - so we do regular phone meetings which works fine.
They've asked me to come to a meeting at their offices and I said - fine but as with all my clients, that's a day rate of £xxx.
They're shocked as they expected it to not be chargeable. These are the same clients I attended a trade show for and when I put in my invoice for having spent the day there, meeting journalists on their behalf, keeping their social media flowing, taking photographs, filming videos etc - they said "Oh we didn't expect there to be a charge because you had other clients there too". I did - but they had my trade show attendance built into their fee. It's a tricky one because while the clients themselves drive me a bit nuts, I really like working for their brand and I've grown it from nothing so it's sort of my baby. But, I'm increasingly getting frustrated that they seem to want special rates. They pay me significantly less than my other clients (half) but sometimes it feels as though they're taking up more of my time because they're more demanding. They're also the only one of my clients where I deal with a marketing department - the others have employed me because they don't have any internal marketing - it's a whole lot easier and they definitely appreciate that they've employed you because you're the expert. Any thoughts and ideas for the frustrated freelancer?