Comments on: How Freelancers Can Avoid Old Boot Soup

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:37:47 +0000

You nailed this.

A. Raise your prices, you're worth it. B. Money up front. C. Charge for changes. If they're important enough, they'll pay for them.

Act like a pro, you'll be treated like one. Besides, there's nothing that builds amity with a customer so much as making sure they've got skin in the game.

By: Stephen Bartholomew

Stephen Bartholomew — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:20:39 +0000

That’s not to say the core of what you said isn’t great – the flexibility that comes with freelancing is often overlooked too :)

By: Stephen Bartholomew

Stephen Bartholomew — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:19:09 +0000

Just because you're a freelancer, doesn't mean you're different from companies when it comes to cashflow.

Strictly speaking, we state that we expect the deposit to be paid prior to work starting. In reality, we start sooner which makes clients feel a bit more special :)

Before I teamed up with others and was freelancing, I used to bitch about how difficult it is to establish cashflow but the truth is, I just didn't know/want/try hard enough.

By: Jack

Jack — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:59:54 +0000

Asking for an upfront deposit is probably reasonable for any number of reasons, including the ones you cite, but (as a freelancer myself) I would have to think if you’re in a situation where a 30 day delay on getting paid for a job is a serious financial problem, you really really should have a larger slush/emergency fund. On a salary, living from check to check is bad enough, but doing it as a freelancer seems foolish in the extreme; you never know when the next job will be. And, truly, one of the joys about being a freelancer is the ability to enjoy the dead times – no work worth doing to be found? Cool, take a week or three (or a month or three) off to learn something new, go on a long camping trip, whatever.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:35:54 +0000

There’s a reason lawyers have long worked on a retainer basis. Essentially, attorneys are freelancers. The quickest way to see if your client is serious about the commitment to a project is to ask for a retainer/down payment.

By: amy

amy — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 11:47:45 +0000

Stephen, exactly! It's much more about changing yourself than changing your cilents. That's the hard part ;) Glad to hear the more serious approach to deposits is helping you now!

By: Bertrand

Bertrand — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 11:17:37 +0000

Interesting article. I’ll be sure to follow those principles if I ever freelance.
The principle of having cash upfront seems like a fair and reasonable business practice and helps you weed out potential bad employers.

By: Stephen Bartholomew

Stephen Bartholomew — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:55:18 +0000

This is spot on.

We've always charged deposits but it was never enough and we weren't strict with it. Our cashflow really suffered for it.

We started charging 50% up front a few months ago and none of our clients (existing or new) questioned it.

What we have been doing is only charging deposits on jobs over £1k - I like the idea of billing the lot up front. Part of the battle is just changing the way we think about our services. No one questions paying for an event or product up front.

By: Richard Nyström

Richard Nyström — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:54:20 +0000

Great! Every blog post should have a twitter version.

By: amy

amy — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:59:08 +0000

Thanks! "Bad Client Detector" - hmm, that sounds like an idea that could evolve some more, too :D

Me, I learned the hard way that I had to stop focusing on how to GET the client, and figure out if I WANTED the client. Guess I'm not the only one :) A lot like dating, eh?