Career success as a freelance copywriter depends on your ability to secure the right clients. If your clients cost you time, wear down your emotions, or pay you a pittance, you can kiss your career goodbye and head back to a cubicle. And who wants to do that? Not I!

Here’s how to secure the best and dodge the worst in clients so you can make a living and have fun doing it:

Avoid people who can’t make up their minds.

My rule of thumb says if a client takes longer than four weeks from initial conversation to an up-or-down decision to hire me, they’re out. I’ve heard all the excuses: We’ve been busy. Something else came up. School started. One client actually told me, “I’ve just been so full of grief because my son’s girlfriend broke up with him that I haven’t called you back.”

If a client is too busy to hire you now, they will be too busy to work with you later. They might be great people with a strong mission, but they’re not ready to employ a freelance writer. Your time is money. Don’t waste it.

Read more at Almost An Author.