Re micromanaging: I've been essentially a freelancer for most of my working life. The one (apparent) exception was when a small business made me an employee -- to keep doing exactly the same job that I'd done for them before. It was a small enough business that I was practically that whole department by myself, so there was no one to micromanage me.

My strategy for dealing with clients who do want to micromanage me, is to let them. Sometimes, when they're sufficiently involved in the project and know what they're doing, I find I can do a better job with their input. The rest of the time, instead of asking them to bug off I hand some decisions over to them:

"We have a choice. How high above the door should your new light fixture go?"

"We could leave the screw heads showing so they'll be easily accessible next time, or we could spackle and paint over them so they won't show in the meantime."

"I could get that unit working for around $100 -- or would you rather order a new motor for $200?"

If they don't really know what they're doing and were only hoping to show that I didn't either, it doesn't usually take them very long to think of other ways they'd rather be spending their time.