[jeremyjarvis]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I would urge you (from many years experience in a "previous life") to look for clients who understand the true value of what you offer. That's the only way the client will have "warm fuzzes" in the end and you'll have warm fuzzes plus a healthy business.

If at all possible, I would try and work in some sort of agile process, where the client is paying you by the hour but has absolute visibility into progress and choosing which features to prioritise. In many cases, they will enjoy the experience and insight dragging features around in a kanban board gives them.