That is one of the "legal definitions" of contractor. If you don't have control over your own time, you are an employee. Look up definition of employee, in Canada it may be different. In the US, lots of big companies (think Uber recently) get in trouble by trying to treat contractors like employees without giving them any of the benefits of being a contractor.
Know the law, at least a little bit, learn to ask for a more than you are comfortable with (companies almost always are willing to pay you more than you think) and document everything.
Be sure to keep email trails of work requests, especially stuff over the phone. Numerious times (when I first started out) I had a client say "do this" on the phone, I do the work, then they said "I didn't ask for this". So always verify work requests in writing/email, even if it seems redundant. It will totally save your behind.
I often times will mention I need confirmation, explicitly, even with long time clients. Like "Do I have the ok to start on project XYZ?", and I let them know I need an email back with a "yes" before I start work.
It may take some client training for them to get used to this kind of thing, but if they are confused I give a brief explanation on past experience where I accidentally misunderstood a client request (I take responsibility) and did work I wasn't asked to do. I always get a good response from this, and the needed "yes".
Know the law, at least a little bit, learn to ask for a more than you are comfortable with (companies almost always are willing to pay you more than you think) and document everything.
Be sure to keep email trails of work requests, especially stuff over the phone. Numerious times (when I first started out) I had a client say "do this" on the phone, I do the work, then they said "I didn't ask for this". So always verify work requests in writing/email, even if it seems redundant. It will totally save your behind.
I often times will mention I need confirmation, explicitly, even with long time clients. Like "Do I have the ok to start on project XYZ?", and I let them know I need an email back with a "yes" before I start work.
It may take some client training for them to get used to this kind of thing, but if they are confused I give a brief explanation on past experience where I accidentally misunderstood a client request (I take responsibility) and did work I wasn't asked to do. I always get a good response from this, and the needed "yes".