I think it’s more of a symptom of an underlying problem.

When you are doing what the client says, it diminishes your skill in their eyes and makes you seem replaceable. They get the feeling that they could just find someone else to do what they say, whether or not that’s true.

So then your relationship isn’t on equal footing.

I don’t like my clients to tell me what to do. I want them to tell me what they need and then I can work with them to figure out how best to accomplish it. It’s more of a collaboration then.

It’s not necessarily that you should always recommend a project. Some clients have definite problems they need solved, so the goal of the project is already pretty much known. But you should definitely recommend how to solve the problem and what tradeoffs make most sense and the best ROI.

Does that help?