Professionalism...is it THAT hard?!?

I'm always amazed at the number of potential clients I talk to who are forced to contact me because:

a) their previous artist stopped returning emails and disappeared
b) their previous artist took their money and never delivered
c) their previous artist did the job, but then never answered back when revisions were needed
d) their previous artist stopped returning emails and disappeared
e) their previous artist stopped returning emails and disappeared (can you tell how often I hear this?)

It always floors me, because how can you NOT be skeptical of working with freelance artists after those experiences? It seems like this is the norm for a lot of my clients, and they expect to be ripped off. I'm constantly told "wow, thanks so much for getting back to me so quickly!" or clients rave about how professional my invoices and updates are, when in reality, I don't consider this going above and beyond. As a professional, you should ALWAYS hold yourself to a high standard and conduct business in the same way you'd want to be treated if you were a client. That means responding to calls and emails in a reasonable time frame, answering questions, and asking the right questions before you even start.

All you artists out there who are giving us freelancers a bad name by being unprofessional or flaky...please stop and think about what you're doing to the industry! It makes me sad that so many people think artists are ALL that way.

Then again...maybe just go ahead and continue being flaky...and I'll take over the clients who you lose! :D