Ten things you hope the client never says
Working from home as a full-time freelance web developer I’ve encountered some absolutely stunning lines from clients and so have friends of mine. This is a small collection of those lines to watch out for if you choose to go into the field yourself.
1. If you do this one for free…
This has to be one of the most popular. People always want something for as little as possible, the notion of ‘you get what you pay for’ normally doesn’t register until at least eighteen years old, but the notion can be ignored at ages high above this.
2. This will be great exposure…
This usually comes before number 1, ‘If you do this one for free you’ll get great exposure’. The problem is great exposure isn’t a link in the footer and it isn’t a mention in the launch post. Great exposure is guaranteed jobs afterwards, and lots of traffic for your own personal site - that and possibly free advertising in a prominent placement.
3. Deposit?
Some clients want you to effectively work for free. No deposit and lots of free work = one starving freelancer. To be free to accept work that doesn’t involve deposits be sure to have some money stored away to eat away at until the client pays in the end. Make sure they are trustable and will pay in the end. Be sure to do your research.
4. Can I put this on my GeoCities?
It takes the breath out of you, working on something for a long time and then a client asking you if they can put it on an incompatible hosting platform that won’t support it. It makes for some difficult explaining but makes one great entry on a ‘ten things you hope the client never says’ article.
5. I’ve changed my mind, I don’t want it anymore
This is always an annoyance, and is sometimes a requirement in order to progress onto other projects. But it’s always something that will affect you on a personal level.
6. Ok can you just add this, and this
“You want money for the additions? You said you’d do everything for a set price!’. This one starts a lot of arguments and can affect your relationship with the client dramatically depending on how you react. To prevent this one blowing up on you always outline a clear feature set before starting work and outline exactly what you’ll deliver. Also outline what additional costs will be monetarily to the client. Will they be by the hour? Or a fixed fee? Discussed on arrangement? Whatever it is - it’s always best to plan these things out beforehand.
7. I just need you to look the other way whilst we break this law..
Whether it be tax law (it usually is) or some kind of pass the parcel - breaking the law is bad, um kay? Be sure to brush up on your tax laws that apply to you - make sure that if your hired to do a job for a company as an employee that they are handling your taxes, and if you are a contractor that you sort out your own. It always helps to know a small amount of law, and to consult an accountant when you aren’t sure of something.
8. My mum says that she won’t let me use her credit card so I can’t pay you
Funny, but a huge cringe worthy moment. It happens to all of us once in a blue moon, and it makes a fun entry.
9. Yahoo! will buy us
This is normally followed by number 1 and/or 2. People get bought all the time - but it’s simply not the case that millions are involved with every purchase of another site. Yahoo! may buy anywhere between one and tens of sites a year, but that’s between one and tens of several million websites out there.
10. Nothing at all
The client disappears, drops off the face of the earth. It’s your worst nightmare, they get you started on a project and leave, they give you a brief about a project tell you the deposit is coming and then you never hear from them. To avoid this make sure you always have a backup plan and if you can get a secondary contact for your client - that’s even better.
I’d like to thank Ronalfy for giving me the idea for this article. If you have any other things you’d like to see me write feel free to leave a comment or use my contact form to send it directly.
I would also like to mention that this article is also available on my blog JHuskisson.com where my articles will always appear first. To keep up to date with my blog be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed.
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I have had number 10 happen to me recently. I discussed the site with the client, worked up an HTML template, which he liked, and was waiting for a couple of changes from him. Didn’t hear from him for about a month. So I sent him an email, and he replied saying that he had been busy, but that he now was ready to get going on the implementation. That was about a month ago. At what point do I just give up on the project? I know he is willing to pay good money.
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Yeah, number 10 happens to me far to often. Most recently I had a client ask for a fan-site template he could use over and over without much customization for different fan sites. I started work on it and everything was going good, but I haven’t heard from him in about 2 1/2 weeks. Because you never want to do too much and than have the client say they don’t like where it’s going, I stopped work on it weeks ago. Appears to be another lost cause :-/
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1, 5, 6, 8
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NICE! These things happen to me all the time. Some more than others.
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I always like it when it’s a deadly combination of 1, 2, 9, and 10.
If I had to add one more on there, I would run when a potential client asks, “Do you do websites for cheap?”
That’s like going to a car dealership and saying, “I want something real cheap that gets me from point a to point b.” I can imagine the smirk as the car salesman pulls out a rusted bicycle from the garage and says, “Here’s what you asked for.”
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Follow up on number 10. I’d rather have someone disappear than someone who disappears and comes back after several months of silence. These people are so annoying.
Worst than that are those who pay the full amount before the project is finished and then they just disappear. When they come back after several months, I have pretty much forgotten all about the project.
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I love it when #6 starts with “I think it’s perfect but…” and then it continues until the design looks completely different from what you started with, more often than not looking like crap.
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I found this hilarious animated gif via Boagworld that describes a lot of what’s talked about in the post. Please watch until the end and ignore the typos. You’ll be rollin’.
Design me a website.
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To make sure customers don’t simply disappear, I always take half of the money BEFORE beginning a job, and the other half when it’s done. Makes customers think twice before they consider disappearing into nothingness… and at least in Germany, it’s a common strategy, so business customers don’t complain about it.
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I think a certain degree of taking a stance is necessary for protecting yourself. As long as you go about it professionally, asking clients to do something reasonable like pay a retainer before progressing with the work shouldn’t be something any of them take issue with.
It doesn’t even have to be half before/half after deal if your local business culture isn’t inclined to go with that — just *something* monetarily or legally binding as opposed to a cross-fingered hope they won’t screw you over would do.
I work for a company that requires contracts with all clients so I can’t claim to understand the pressures of freelance design and attracting clients, but your own welfare should always be a priority and leaving the gap open for clients to abuse your trust is probably something you should find some solution for. It’d fix at least a few of the points above anyway.
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I can tell you that a lot of these points translate across all work for freelancers, projects that promise great exposure never deliver - never lead to extra work, and not getting paid is a killer. Like some of the other posts, I absolutely request at least 30% before I get started. Otherwise, there is no project. Most clients understand that. And in all freelance work, a clear project description is needed to avoid any “project creep”.
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I’ve had all of these, except the mom/creditcard one. I don’t really do design, but apps/functionality some design comes into play but I never sell my work as design.
I learned years ago to always have a contract of some form. Even if it’s just as simple as a list of functionality, and outline of what gets paid when. If you have something the client signs, and can refer back to, you eliminate most of this.
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Or when they tell you before the job that they have no preconceived idea of what they want, then see the first draft you worked forever on and suddenly have lots of other websites they want you to look at.
Great post - glad to know I’m not the only one out there!
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1, 2, 3, 6 and 10
These things have actually shaped our current service contract so it doesn’t happen to us again.
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Glad you guys like it. A contract is always important to making sure the majority of these don’t happen to you whilst working with a client
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I’ve been a freelancer for 2 years…Contracts are essential! as is money down!
I’ve seen all the above….I usually send a potential client an email with examples of my work (to prove I’m competent) then I talk on the phone (once) for a few minutes and ask them about features they want, sites they like the look of…then set an appt…and bring the contract to the first appt. , talk for 20 mins…taking notes, smiling,then I ask for 50% down and have them sign the contract…if they don’t do that , I leave, send 0ne follow up email, and forget them…find the next client that is really ready to go…I quit being shocked after a few of these incidents..it’s part of the business…and worth a laugh!
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WTF does “um kay” mean in #7?
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You’ve pretty much summed up the list of why I don’t take freelance contracts any longer. It’s just more hassle than it’s worth usually when dealing with individuals. Most do not know what they really want. Don’t want you to charge them to help flush out the requirements. Bleh to them.
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@Steve: don’t you know Mr. Mackey from “South Park”?
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my fave - when #1 comes from family members. “You wouldn’t mind taking a look at _______, would you? You’re my cousin, so this is free, right?” Oy vey.
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One thing I recommend to other freelancers is, always get a deposit before beginning any work. Many client can be skittish about laying out a deposit. Just do the same thing the ebayers do. Use an escrow service. The client can send the deposit (or the whole amount) to the escrow service, and you can both define the terms of the release of the money.
This eliminates 3, 5, 7, 8 and 10
Using an escrow service protects both you and the client.
As for 1 and 2 those are for newbies, and they are planing to work for little or nothing on their first few anyway. Once you get your first paying client, you never work for free again.
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Great post! I am picking this as the “Post of the Day!”
http://postawards.blogspot.com/
I am a freelancer myself and just starting to strike out in the work of contract work. One safe way to go around I say is to have the transaction done with Escrow Services but the problem there is that it costs money.
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Comment Removed at request of commenter.
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I stumbled upon this article and I gave it a hearty thumbs up. Unfortunately, all too true and something I have mentioned on my site at http://www.thearticlewriter.com/blog
Somehow seeing it all collected together in writing seems to crystalize the importance of being diligent when working with clients.
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I’ve had all ten at one point or another. One word of advice to anyone who reads this article……CONTRACTS AND DEPOSITS!!! If a client says no to either, it almost always isn’t worth it.
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Of course I had most of these happen to me because when I was 1st starting out I wanted to build my portfolio.
My first PHP site: I
accepted a project from a client that
1)is paying me in jewelry that I have yet to receive.
2)Keeps disappearing,popping back up and then disappearing again.
3) has changed his domain name 2x and is going to change it again!
Once because he lost the lease to his real store and the domain had “bad vibes”, and again because a client of his didn’t like what came up in Google when she Googled key words sort of related to the domain name but that she couldn’t remember exactly…
4)wanted a cms.I gave him a cms and so much instructions on how to use it is was like a small novel even though it was the simplest cms on the planet—and he doesn’t use it!
It’s a catalog and he wants to write the jewelry descriptions himself but he doesn’t.
I’m still working on this site 8 whole months after I started it.It’s a huge nightmare but he is a really nice guy so I don’t drop him.
I guess I am a little spineless but…the jewelry is nice at least,lol.
I’m probably the problem here,not the client!
Needless to say I am much more professional now with my other current clients.