> If they’re too new, they may not know much about their business or their audience yet.
Isn't that what they're hiring you for? I mean your previous point about the right niche makes sense. But if your niche is healthcare and a new healthcare businesses shows up ... are they not leaning on you to provide expertise in that market? And wouldn't that help build your brand?
> – but those are all much harder to do if a client is starting from a place where they’re making no money or worse, spending more money than they are making.
This has nothing to do with "can't afford you". If the business truly can't afford you then as a freelancer you're doing yourself a favor by not offering discounts to accommodate. You're not doing the potential client any favors here.
Otherwise most businesses actually do spend more money than they're making on marketing and creative, especially early on as they build their brand. You should definitely take their money. How else are they going to grow if you can;t help them at that critical early stage? Send them to get a free website first? You might as well start writing the obituary.
Established businesses that are already making money hand over fist would typically already be happy with their freelance creative, but if they're willing to spend money on something new with you, then you must have done something early on that contradicts the premise of this paragraph in order to earn their trust.
> If a client assumes that hiring you will completely turn their business around instantly, bring them bags of money every day, and skyrocket their brand into the stratosphere…
As a freelancer, if your work is high quality, really good, award winning type stuff, then I would expect all potential clients would think you're a miracle worker. That's high praise.
At that point it's your job to set expectations, not turn them away.
While I do agree with some of the points, the author seems out of touch with reality - we regular folks don't have the recognition or word of mouth machine to be this picky. And at the end of the day it's all about setting client expectations. Not the other way around.