If you are a freelancer, then you must know about those clients who never pay. Clients who give you more work without appreciating your efforts. There are some clients, who will not respect you as a freelancer.
Every freelancer at some point of time works with such clients. They are big time scammers, and they won’t pay after making you work hard for your money. It is very common in freelancing world. Some believe that ending up with bad client is just a part of freelancing world. But, if someone is following the proper steps, then these clients can easily be avoided. Below we are going to discuss some points, which should be followed to avoid such scammers.
1. Check out the reputation – freelancers are having various profiles on websites, which determines their reputation, similarly clients are also having various profiles, which can help you in evaluating their reputation. You can read their profile and feedbacks, which are given by various freelancers who worked for them.
You can also check out their facebook and twitter pages to find out more about their nature of work.
There scammer clients are having a habit of cheating various freelancers, and this thing can help you a lot. You can check their page where freelancers post their negative feedback against the client.
There are various legit clients, who are genuine, but they work with bad freelancers who post negative comments against them, therefore before making any choice, you must study their profile carefully.
2. Meetings – meeting with client is a good thing, but scammer clients always try to eat your time with useless meetings. You must understand that these meetings take a lot of time, and if any client is not going to hire you, then your time will get completely wasted.
They will ask you for some ideas regarding project, and later on they will use those ideas without informing you. Therefore, you must only discuss about the project details, and if clients ask you something else then completely ignore it.
You must not trust any other client who is asking for too many information from you. There are some freelancers who even charge according to their meeting time. Everybody knows that time is money for freelancers.
3. Take some advance payment– if you think that a client is going to hire you, then ask for some advance money. This will help in sealing the deal. Advance payment is very good in terms of developing a good relation based on trust.
Freelancing world is all about trust, but advance payment shows that the client is really serious, and they really want to hire you. You can also trust them that they will finally pay you the remaining amount after the project is completed.
Clients who are ready to pay you some advance money won’t run away, because they have invested some money and nobody likes to lose their money.
Generally, freelancers think that asking for advance money will create a bad impression on the client, well that is not true. If you are serious about this job, then it is your right to ask your client for some advance money.
Milestone payment is also an option where the client can create a milestone and after completion of a certain phase, clients can release the milestone.
4. Agreement – many experts believe that freelancing agreement should be signed by both the parties before commencement of work. It ensures that both client and freelancer are ready to follow rules and regulations, which are mentioned in the agreement. You must read the whole agreement paper, and the agreement paper must contain all the details which are necessary for the project.
A professional freelancer will always opt for an agreement, because it clearly states all the details like total price of the project, specified deadline and various other things which are important for the project. You must rely on things, which are not written on a piece of paper, because that will be forgotten after a certain period of time.
Agreement paper shows the honest side of your client. If your client is serious and very honest, then he/she will definitely sign those agreement papers without any delay. Agreement paper is very important for big projects, where deadlines and money involved is huge as compared to small projects.
5. Debate over rate – if you want to negotiate on rates, then this may be a very bad idea, because clients generally don’t want to go for a debate. Legit client will always keep a fixed budget, and they won’t negotiate further. But bad clients will lower the rates incredibly. If you like to debate over rates, then that might upset a client, and eventually they will turn out to be a bad client.
It’s always better to read all the terms and conditions of a project before applying for it. You can also get time to time bonuses if you do a good job.
6. Clear instructions – sometimes, you will meet some clients who are not sure about their project. They definitely want something, but they are not so sure about it. These clients are very tough to handle, because it doesn’t matter how hard you try, but they will always expect more than that.
Always try to work with those clients, who can provide you with clear instructions and details regarding that project.
These types of clients are not even sure about their payment terms. They will start with good payment, and eventually they will decrease the rates after some time.
Freelancing is not so easy, getting a good client is very important, if you want to establish your freelancing business. Trust is the main thing, which matters the most in this business. You should follow all the points, which are given above, so that you can avoid those scammers. Bad clients really spoil the complete pleasure of freelancing. Because of these scammers, many freelancers have changed their profession, because they think that there are no legit buyers out there.
