Freelance, such freelance

In the past decade, I have had the fortune of freelancing for a long time. It was a fun time. Not stable, sometimes cast-iron, but in general it was interesting.

Now I work in a company that is quite actively in contact with freelancers, and of course, I participate in this process.

As a customer and a freelancer in one person, looking back at a good experience, I, in fact, share my experience with them.

Applicable to design, and to copywriting, and programming, and to web-mastering. Perspectives of professional relations between people, objective and subjective circumstances that affect these relations.
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Customers

So historically it happened that the services of freelancers are cheaper than the services of organizations. Often this difference is very large. Therefore, among the economic reasons that stimulate freelancer demand, there is not only the opportunity to find a specialist of interest without being constrained by geographic boundaries, not only the ability to optimize the technical process through cooperation with colleagues at remote workplaces, but also cheapness.
The latter leads to the fact that among freelance customers most of the lovers are freebies, inexperienced, and just losers, drunks, and even torn psychos.
When I was a freelancer, when I first met the customer for myself, my main goal was to separate the latter category from the previous ones. Judge for yourself, with whom the work can be fundamentally successful?

1. Professional, competent in the key field or not familiar with it (your colleague or not, but smart and experienced in the business)
2. Adequate lover of freebies. Just wants to solve a small problem cheaper.
3. Inadequate or inexperienced lover of freebies. He wants to solve a big problem cheaper.
4. Loser, nihilists, drunk and (or) psycho

With the first work, really, comfortable. Here, quite objective factors will most likely influence decision making at all stages, from dating to acceptance and payment.
About the second and third categories we will talk separately.
And now we will discuss how to save ourselves from empty days associated with wasting time and nerves on communicating with the fourth group.

Do not waste money on losers

So, what exactly we want to keep, protecting ourselves from communicating with those with whom it is not desirable to work.

• Time
• Forces, including nerves, which are very poorly repaired
• Money
• Reputation

Project discussion and consultation is an integral part of the work of a freelancer. For many, it takes up to half the working time, and sometimes more.
Emotional losses, as well as srach on the Internet, play a certain role in the career of a freelancer. The first to suffer is inspiration, faith in people, optimism. Even one acute failure can seriously unsettled, and the recovery will take quite a long time.
Here are some simple ways to identify a loser in a new acquaintance. You can choose from them, depending on the scale of the project and your own risk assessment of participation.

1. Call and chat with Skype video.
2. Make a phone call.
3. Agree on a conversation in the near future, and in fact assess the punctuality of the respondent (does he promise you to exchange materials, accept work and pay later?)
4. Personal meeting. If the project is worth good money, you can spend time and a little money on the trip, and make sure that the respondent is sound.
5. Discuss a detailed presentation of the technical specifications.
6. Ask about previous projects. Both successful and unsuccessful experience will be very interesting - the probability is obviously great that relations with you will be “in trend.”
7. If they are asking for someone to finish something, ask about the predecessor. Why he does not finish? If there is no information, it makes sense to search by yourself. In any conflict both parties are always guilty, and the probability of your falling into an unsuccessful trend in this case is again obviously higher than the average.
8. Talk about personal. Simple questions, of course, when they are in place, help identify problems in the mental state of the respondent. It is to detect them if they are. For example, if the interlocutor is not married, ask why.
9. In some cases, relevant. Global and pretentious plans correlate with the real welfare and social status of the respondent. Directly ask about successful experience, even if it is not profile (the customer is not professional in the industry in which the project is located, on which or on a part of which you are offered to work) - in any case, it is useful to understand whether the customer can pay you back and how it will be calculated.

In case the money that should be paid to you will be more than your respondent earns, even if he pays someone else's money “from the budget” - there will be an order of magnitude more biased acceptance criteria. You have to be prepared for this, or refuse to work in a timely manner, which you can do, and you will receive results not without sex with your brain, the ChSV, causing mutual doubts about sexual orientation, and other “surprises”.

Beacons

Some moments in communication, like beacons, signal possible future problems.

• Discrepancy between the age and social status of the author of the project to the scale of the project. Even if there are “investors” behind the back of a young start-up, problems may still arise due to a lack of experience in personal relationships and gaps in the competence of your customer.
• Excessive talkativeness "off topic". I don’t understand how, but I have noticed many times - when the interlocutor has something to say 90% of the time, but this does not apply to the task, practical actions on his part will slow down. Can significantly slow down.
• Interactive control. "Be N hours per day in Skype" and the like. In fact, this signals the inability to detail the tasks and explain the criteria for success to the performers. This is a sign of bad management. What will appear when accepting your work, and when paying, and in further relations. Successful control is distinguished primarily by transparent criteria that are understandable to both sides of the freelance transaction. It can be regular, but not interactive.
• The requirement of detailed schedule and accurate estimates, with a clearly inadequate source data. Bayan, which even once again no need to discuss. Everyone ran into it.
• The interviewee is drunk and (or) obviously inadequate. Nothing to comment.
• The scope of your conversation is far from the scope of your task. You are given a puzzle for 100-1000 dollars, and your ears are rubbed about millions, a bright future, presidents, ministers and employees, the best employers and other demands. In general, non-objectivity in the formulation of tasks indirectly indicates bias and even inadequacy, which will manifest itself in the future. Surely, each of us in memory have such examples?

Both the designer, and the copywriter, and the programmer as a rule are creative persons. For such people, karma is very important, and often - intuition.
If not “flooded” at once - maybe it makes sense to think again? And will it “trample” in the future?

Lovers of freebies

In fact, it is possible to work with such.
For a start, the scale of the project matters. If you want to raise a blog on WordPress with a finished skin, and for that 3,000 rubles is offered - why not? If you have sufficient experience, of course, and you really well imagine the scale of the tasks.
More difficult when the scale of the project is large. This is a parable, one of the most popular themes of design, copywriting and programmer experiences.
Freelancers who are not very well aware of the scale of the task are happy to grab projects with budgets of thousands of dollars. Sincere enthusiasm causes the possibility of receiving a prepayment. And then go to the forums, and look for solutions. They grab hold of their heads, realizing the real size of their commitment after the fact.
This reason is the most frequent for the following super-known phenomena:

1. health problems of grandmothers;
2. problems with the stability of the Internet connection;
3. problems with the performance of the computer and software;
4. sudden transitions into parallel realities.

In the events that occurred, of course, both sides play a big role. Both an inexperienced freelancer and the customer are a freebie seeker.
Here are some ways out of the stalemate.

• Return the money and move on. Finding money is not so difficult - now they are distributed at every corner. If you spend 2-3 days to communicate with the bank - you can get a loan on more favorable terms than ekpress-lending.
  Debts are rotting. Crush and destroy your development. Get rid of debt, manage your obligations. For a successful novice specialist, the main goal should be self-development, rather than short-term needs.
• Before the start of communication, did you verify that the customer is adequate, and maybe even loyal? And maybe just lucky, it makes sense to check. Repent! Tell that you did not underestimate the task. Tell us about your creative path. What good did your work, what prospects opened up. Ask to increase the time and budget, the main thing is to attract additional specialists (no one bothers to do this on their own). If you're lucky, maybe get it.
• Do those parts of the project that you can really do successfully. As little as possible of “cleverness” and specificity - work in such a way that the project will be accompanied by other people working on it. By the way, this is a completely general recommendation, relevant for all cases.

And most importantly - try to be honest and consistent! Look for this and your respondents. Do not lie and hide, do not pull the rubber - do not bring to the conflict. Look for solutions with the customer, not against him. Consult with colleagues, including in the forums, and it does not necessarily stand out, show and prove your steepness. Be active and objective. And for the future - also cautious, which is what this article is devoted to.

All you get. Good luck!