Throughout your freelancing career, you’re bound to come across a whole range of interesting characters, whom are going to want to hire you for the services you offer. It is your business to be able to communicate well to these individuals, some of whom may fall into certain stereotypical groups. Well, let’s go through a few.
The “NOW!” Client
The “NOW!” client is the type of person who feels that they need you to get down to work instantly for you there and then, and to boot, it needs to be of the highest quality you can imagine, and done within an hour. These are the extremely impatient type, who usually procrastinate till near the end of their own deadlines if they’re hiring you to work on another person’s project – and so they need a “rush job”. Usually, though, the client doesn’t even have a deadline they need to work by, and just want the work done by you “NOW!” for no apparent reason.
There are multiple ways to combat such a client, you ensure that you don’t fall prey to their “rushful” ways. For one, you could apply a rush fee to your project, which increases the quicker the client wants the project done. For example, if they want the project to be done within 3 days, and you usually take about a week for such work, you can quote them a few hundred dollars/pounds extra. If they want it done sooner, you charge them more. Simple. This usually calms those clients whom want a rushed job, without reason, and puts them in a position more inclined to choose your standard work rate. However, if the client genuinely needs the work done in a rush, they may be more inclined to accept your “rush fees” – so it works both ways.
The Skimpy Client
These guys are a dime a dozen, seriously. They are the type of people who wants an out-of-this-world website, script, article, e-book, or painting, but don’t have “much of a budget”. You need to tackle these guys with caution. Usually, they are the type that will try to get as much work out of you as possible, for a fraction of the usual cost.
Your first call to action should be to establish if they actually do have a budget to establish whether or not they can actually afford your services. Sometimes, the client could be from a charitable foundation of some sort, or community project, and therefore not have much of a budget. In such a scenario, you may want to weigh out whether or not you wish to be doing work for discounted rates/free or not.
Quote “The Skimpy Client” with your usual rates (if they’re not from a charity) and if they start responding in a way where they try to haggle you down, or say it’s too expensive, forget about them and move on. They’re likely to give you more trouble than what you’ll get out of it.
The “I’m not 100% sure what I want…” Client
Clients are not designers, coders, or usually not any kind of freelancers at all, so it’s sometimes difficult for them to establish just what they need from you. For example, if you’re a freelance web designer, the client may not know exactly what they’re after in terms of aesthetics, feel, etc. Their answer to this is that they’re “not 100% sure” what they want, but, they’re absolutely certain that when they see what they want, they’ll know. Immediately, you should stop, and alerting yourself to what this client is saying. This type of client is typically going to make you go through as many revisions as you possible can on work which you provide them, not only that, but I’ve had times when they even after 3 revisions, end up going back to the first draft! Yes, it could be that they like your first draft of a design, or article, but the key here is to figure out whether or not they are extremely fussy about what they want doing or not. If they are, you’ll be in for one heck of a ride.
So there you have it, a set of 3 stereotypical clients, and how you handle them. Remember that not all clients will fall into these brackets, in fact, you’ll come across some very good clients, whom are easy enough to please and pay well for the work you provide – but as a freelancer, you need to learn how to tackle those not-so-good clients.
Is there anything I’ve missed out? Figured out a better way to handle that “NOW!” client? Comment below to let us know!
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July 23rd, 2009 at 6:17 pm
What about the perfect client that respects and trusts your knowledge and work experience. They are willing to pay top dollar for you product and listen to what you suggest. They are easy to work with and in the end you get a great product that benefits both of you. This is the type of client that you want to form an excellent relationship with and work with for a long time. The perfect client is hard to come by but when you find them keep them happy.
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:14 pm
When dealing with the “skimpy clients” it might often work to negotiate the SCOPE of the project rather than the PRICE. If they want a big site for, say $500 when you charge $1000 or more, it may pay off in the end (no pun intended) too negotiate the size of the project and what you can offer them, scaling down the original project. Try to keep in mind not only what they can pay you, but also what you can give them for what they can afford.
That’s just my opinion. Great article, keep up the good work :)
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Just be honest with yourself. Any project under $2000 that is going to take more than one week (because we all know it’s never as simple as one week) is not paying the bills!
July 24th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Not sure that this is true:), but thanks for a post.
July 24th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
I sure wish I had the option to simply walk away from clients. Must be nice to have a fat enough bank account to pick and choose jobs. Sometimes this isn’t the case, and needing to rely on the “Skimpy” client is a regrettable, yet necessary, evil.
You must weigh up the pros and cons of each scenario, because at the end of the day, I’m not “taking one for the team.” If I need £5K (for example) and it won’t actually kill me, I’ll do the job. Someone else will! The notion of turning down work to educate clients (ie – spec work is a no-no) is one of those pipe dreams. I agree in principle but pronciples don’t pay the bills.
Wow, am I really this bleak. Ha!
July 24th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
When it come to doing discounted/free work for charitable organizations (great for portfolio building), any discounts you give them are 100% tax-deductible. :)
July 24th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Good article, In fact I use the rush tax strategy a lot. It is a very natural way that helps the clients to prioritize their tasks and understand the value of time and money. Since most freelancers are working on economical rates, clients seem to take undue advantage. So they pay the rush tax when their marginal costs are high.
July 25th, 2009 at 5:28 am
@brent
Amen to that. I now have a regular client whose work I embarked on along with a designer who outsourced programming to me.
To this day she asks my advice, makes suggestions but i 100% on the level. She is a prompt payer and has ensured I am being fairly paid. She treats the designer the same way.
Little wonder that for her, I will go the extra mile and do the work I’m proudest of. gold dust!
July 25th, 2009 at 5:30 am
Sorry, I meant @Brant!
July 25th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
What about the “fussy designer” client. I had great fun with one such designer who employed me for a reasonably small job. I had it finished in two days time, and he came back with a PDF full of changes, including things like “move the navigation 1 pixel to the right”, and “make the text more compact without changing the line spacing or text sized, or changing the padding”. What’s more, he supplied me with a fireworks PNG (yuck, who uses fireworks nowadays?) that had been flattened so I had to cut it out myself, and was quite contempt having me work until the early hours of the morning (5am, anyone?). When I finally put my foot down, he simply ignored all contact I tried to make and hired some other poor soul to do the work. I was left with nothing but the deposit.
Never underestimate the evil that a designer can be. I must note, however, that not all designers are that picky and (frankly) unprofessional. I have worked with many others that have been nothing but helpful and not fussy. I love those clients :)
July 25th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Actually, discounts you give to charitable organizations are NOT tax-deductible. I found this out the hard way. The only deductions happen if you are selling a physical product. Designers basically sell their time and since it is an intangible element, the U.S. gov won’t let you deduct discounts. This was confirmed by two different CPA’s.
Beware designers, you discount charities out of the goodness of your heart!