All freelancers know there are downsides to the job; working long hours, often alone, and having to file your own tax returns are just a few. But arguably the worst part of being a freelance creative is dealing with difficult clients. There are those who let you fulfil the whole brief, before they decide they want something completely different, clients who want a branded campaign in a particular colour "because their child likes it", or those that "fix" a design of yours by crudely using one of the best logo designers to make their own version. And those are the relatively good ones.
But have you ever considered that how much of a pain a client is might be related to how much they're paying? Illustrator Corey Brickley has posted a simple graph on Twitter that addresses the client/budget continuum (see below).