1. Instant adulation. You’re usually digging the client out of a hole, and they’ll love you for it. If they’re an agency, they can impress their client with their ‘responsiveness’, which actually consists in making you work until 11pm.
2. Relaxed standards. When deadlines loom, fast trumps good every time, so you can submit OK-to-mediocre work to rapturous gratitude. Even minor mistakes can be let through in the rush to completion, because ‘there wasn’t time to check it’. And if you do happen to stub your toe on a good idea while running around in a blind panic, the client will be ecstatic.
3. Unusual leverage. Despite the previous point, there’s no need to reduce the price. Indeed, this is one of the very rare occasions where the freelancer can actually punch their weight in negotiations, particularly if they already know the client or the brand. You might even get away with a premium for quick turnaround.
4. Enforced consensus. There’s no time for amends, so your first draft or design will just have to do. Forget about working through six emails from six people with six different ideas of how the second version might look.
5. Rapid remuneration. When acceptance is swift, the invoice follows soon after, as sure as night follows day. A welcome change from those jobs where months elapse between submitting a version and hearing the response.

Now, can you get something to me by 10am tomorrow?

Tags: Rush jobs