Have you seen the way two animals peer into each others’ eyes, carefully scrutinizing each other and figuring out who’s in whose territory? That used to happen to me when I organized administrative assistants. Their boss would hire me to get them organized and by the look in the assistant’s eyes, I knew I wasn’t welcome. I tried to be charming and when that didn’t work—most of the time it didn’t—I talked with them about their hobbies, interests, or being forced to work with someone when they didn’t want to. Finally they agreed to work with me.

Knowing when to back off is invaluable.

You may be encroaching on your clients’ territory without knowing it. Until you’ve worked with clients for awhile and set boundaries (either formal or informal) it’s important to know your territory, know how to stay out of your clients’ territory, and stay within your own. By not doing that, you set yourself up for a conflict.

Your contact at a company, possibly the owner, may not be aware of everyone’s job responsibilities. After all, titles can be ambiguous. When you’re given a freelance project, make sure that the internal person who’s going to work with you on the project doesn’t feel threatened. If not, you’ll automatically raise a wall between yourself and that person.

It’s also good to know when to back off. That advice works for spouses too.