How to become a successful freelancer
This is an article about freelancers. I myself have acted many times both as a customer and as an executor of works; our account on free-lance.ru takes the 5th place under the heading " turnkey websites ", although he is only 9 months old (as he wrote, he moved to 6th place) .
I want to share with you some thoughts about successful freelancing.
Competent communication with the customer is half the success of the project. Remember, it’s not enough to be a good programmer or designer to be a successful freelancer. You are also a manager. Much depends on how you manage to sell your services, how you will communicate with the customer in the process of doing the work.
The customer is mainly interested in three things: the adequacy of the contractor, his experience (portfolio) and price. A little less - the timing of work.
To show that you are quite an adequate person to work with is the easiest of this list. Some freelancers forget about some simple things when communicating. Do not make the customer a fool, even if he really does not understand the question at all. Do not let him feel like a lamer. Explain to him the essence of the question without the use of narrow professional terms, advise the best implementation option. When communicating, do not use slang, contact the customer for "you", write without grammatical errors. Especially true when you talk to a potential client - you do not know anything about him. Maybe he is twice as old as you and the “hello” message is jarring him.
Show similar projects, if any. This greatly increases the chances that the customer will choose you. Call adequate terms, do not underestimate them to please the customer. Calculate your workload, can you really meet the deadline. It is better to plan with a margin, as often unforeseen circumstances arise - a friend called me to visit, they got sick, the Internet went out.
')
Every customer wants to pay less, get more. This is the normal desire of every client and buyer. But everything has its value. And not everyone understands this, trying to bring down the price. Keep your bar. You can make a small discount, but if the customer wants to drop the price in half - it means that this is simply not your client. Appreciate your work. The customer may have a lot of contrived reasons, with the help of which he will ask to change the price. Most Popular:
Now I only have this money for the project, but in the future I will have a lot of money orders for you . Someday maybe. This is not a reason to reduce the price.
Let's work for% of the profit of the future project . And then the customer why do we need it?
My boss has allocated a certain budget, I would be happy to pay more, but I can not . Virtually any budget can be revised. Not? But then this is a customer problem.
And Vasya Pupkin is cheaper . Why don't you order from him then?
Before starting work, when you have discussed all the conditions on icq, make a brief summary: I do this, such and such a term, such a price. That the customer confirmed that everything is correct. Even better, if there will be a technical task to which you can always refer. If the work is more or less difficult, then the TK should be mandatory.
It is important that you understand each other correctly before starting work, and not in the process. A clear statement of the problem is important!
I think it would not be superfluous to remind you that a freelancer should not suddenly disappear for three days, reply to e-mails at least during the day and periodically check messages in ICQ. If you are going on vacation, a business trip, a hike, then do not forget to notify the clients you are working with.
Ask the customer for contact details. ICQ and an account on free-lance is good, but it is better to have a phone number. It may be necessary if you need to resolve an issue promptly. If a legal entity works with you, find out the name of the employee, the name of the company, its address, corporate phone numbers. It happens that an employee leaves and “forgets” to pay for your work. Having contacts, you can contact the organization and try to continue working with its other representative.
If the scope of work is large, then break it up into stages and ask the customer to pay for each stage separately. This is beneficial to both of you - the customer minimizes the risks, you are stimulated to productive work (a large amount of the prepayment can psychologically relax - “oh, how much money immediately fell”, without a prepayment you strongly risk).
After completing the work, do not forget to ask for feedback (in your thread on the forum, on the freelance website). The reviews draw attention to other customers.
Conventionally, all freelancers can be divided into 3 groups: novices, middle class (most of them) and freelancing stars. Each group has its own characteristics, price levels, methods of attracting customers.
Novice
In addition to your skills you have nothing. No portfolio, no reviews, no loyal customers. Beginner's strategy is simple - take on any orders. For minimal money, without prepayment, on any conditions. Your main task now is to build a portfolio. Work even for a review. In any case, the work will fall in the portfolio, and if the customer likes, then you will receive a positive review and, perhaps, already paid orders from him.
Participate in contests. If you don’t win, the job will remain, and maybe you will be noticed. Do for yourself. Especially important for designers. Draw a corporate identity for a fictional company, make a design layout for a fictional site. Anyway, no one will check. Do the work for your friends. Free or per review.
Middle class
This group includes the majority of freelancers. It can also be divided by at least 3 (by price, by level of work, etc.), but we will not go deeper. Freelancers of this group already have a well-established portfolio, a certain number of jobs and compete with each other in price and quality.
Most freelancers receive orders through their old customers. One told the other, another advised the third, and so on. But this does not mean that you do not need to look for projects yourself.
Offer your services in professional communities and forums. Reply to projects in forums and freelance resources. Just do it right. In no case do not leave sample answers - customers do not like them. Do not leave answers in the spirit of “I will do, contact ICQ” - this is meaningless and only annoying. Give a clear answer with the price, terms, description of the work. List similar projects that you have implemented. Leave a link to your portfolio. Any customer is pleased to receive detailed information, and not a formal reply.
Keep a blog on a professional theme. In the future, this may give a good influx of customers.
Create your website with a portfolio. If you can not site - start a blog, where you will upload your work. However, now it is not necessary, as you can throw a potential customer link to your profile on free-lance.ru. But this option has disadvantages: a). The site can be promoted in search engines (in its own region), the page in free-lance will be more difficult to promote. b). An off-line customer may be unaware of the availability of freelance resources, and here you throw a link to him yourself - these are my competitors.
Try to determine your specialty. Or choose at least 2-3 related specialties. The man-band is not always great. As a customer, I immediately get scared away by freelancers who have in their portfolio works on promotion, website design, icons and copyright to boot. This means that a person is not able to do anything really high quality, all by little.
The deeper the specialization, the more success you can achieve in the chosen field. You can, for example, draw only icons and characters or specialize in the design of portals and web 2.0 services. Specialization is not chosen immediately, but with the advent of experience and a steady stream of orders. If you immediately declare a fairly narrow specialization, without having the reputation of a strong professional in this matter, you can simply remain without orders.
Register as a PI with a simplified tax system. Some customers of legal entities are not able to pay in cash or webmoney. Specify prices, taking into account the fact that 6% will have to pay as a tax.
If you do not want to keep accounts yourself, contact a specialized company or a freelancer, once a quarter they will make you a report for a small amount of money. You will only invoice customers and acts of work performed. You do not even need to buy 1C - find the Word templates on the Internet and enter the data into them.
In addition to the IP account in the bank, you should also have other possibilities for receiving money: webmoney with a personal certificate, Yandex-money, a bank card for individuals. face. Using evenly all the means of receiving money you reduce the chances of attracting the attention of the tax and financial monitoring services.
Freelance stars
The smallest group of freelancers. Work for a long time and stable. They have a constant circle of solvent customers (often they are well-known companies), they occupy the first places on the freelance exchanges, they have an unshakable reputation in professional communities, they are written about in blogs.
Their name is already a brand. There is no need to search for orders for such freelancers, there are already enough customers. At a certain point, the flow of regular orders exceeds the physical capabilities of the contractor. In this case, some freelancers create their team. Their name is a formed brand, while others can do real work. The well-known freelancer takes the order, communicates with the client, but he only performs one third of the orders, and gives the rest to the “younger performers” or submits them to the subcontract. You can hire a manager. The manager communicates with clients, and the freelancer himself is more focused on order execution.
But the most popular option for an oversupply of orders is price increase. Thereby, a certain number of clients are cut off to a comfortable freelancer. If there is a lot of orders again, the prices are revised again.
There is no better protection than prepay. Therefore, always take an advance payment for everything (unless you are a newbie working on a portfolio or the customer has already established itself as reliable). Customers fear that they throw, even more freelancers. Fears do not grow from scratch, unfortunately, there are really a lot of scammers. Therefore, no one will give you 100% prepayment. It is reasonable to ask for 30-50% of the cost of work.
If the customer does not agree even to this - convince. Give him all the contacts you can, send a scan of your passport, contact your loyal customers, show your old profiles on authoritative forums and communities, show high BL webmoney wallet. Your task is to convince the client that you are a reliable partner and are not going to throw him.
If after all this the customer does not want to transfer the prepayment - “I was already thrown, now I pay only for the work done”, then this is an occasion to think about whether the customer is not a fraudster. They like to hide behind the phrase that they have already been deceived.
Another option is to offer the customer a transaction without risk on free-lance.ru. For the customer, this service is free, you pay 10% of the order. Yes, this is a loss of money for a freelancer, but this is better than losing the entire order (however, you can adjust the price in a big way).
If you received an advance payment, this does not mean that you will receive the rest of the money without any serious consequences. It will not be superfluous to insure if the type of work allows. Do not give the source to the customer before you get all the money. That is, if you draw a design - send jpg first, not psd, make a website - upload it to your hosting, not the customer’s server. Some designers still insure that they even apply a watermark to jpg. But this is too much; it is unpleasant for me as a customer to look at such layouts.
Another option to increase your security is to enter into a contract. But this is rather a measure of moral pressure on the customer than a real tool in case something goes wrong. Customers and performers are often located in different cities, no one will go to court for hundreds of kilometers.
It is not always worth taking up an order, even if it seems to be very profitable financially. There are cases when it is better to refuse.
Lack of time
You understand that the current level of loading does not allow you to take a new order. However, if the order is very tasty, the temptation is great. The freelancer begins to convince himself that he will be in time - “I will sleep less, I will not watch TV, figach, figach, figach”. In reality, all this does not work. You either fill up the deadlines for several projects, or there will be solid bugs. In addition, the health after the period of "fig-fig" is exactly what you learn.
If you have several new orders, of which you will have time to make only one - choose the most interesting one. Or screw up the prices. Some customers will disappear by themselves.
The customer categorically does not want to pay an advance
About prepayment, I wrote above. There is a risk that the customer threw. It is better to abandon the project than to regret wasted time.
Customer inadequate
To the inadequacy can be attributed to a number of signs. For example, if the customer is rude to you, stop communicating immediately. Nothing good will come of such cooperation. A number of customers demonstrate the position “I pay money, so do as I say” (even if it is contrary to common sense). You did not hire him into slavery, you are not a computer mouse to be manipulated. A project is a dialogue between a customer and a contractor, and not the dictates of someone alone.
Incomprehensible essence
The customer can not articulate what he really wants. Perhaps he has not yet decided. You do not understand his expectations. The customer ignores clarifying questions or his answers confuse you even more.
The likelihood that the result does not like the customer is very high.
Customer's bad reputation
Even if the customer in communication seems to be an adequate person, but you have read / heard a few reviews about the problems of other freelancers when working with this person, then it is better to refuse the order. The client may say that these freelancers are such lazy, dolphins and non-professionals. But if a person could not work together with several different people, then where is the guarantee that it will work together with you?
If the customer has a reputation for scammers, then this is also a reason to refuse to work with him.
Unrealistic deadlines
Discard the project if the customer puts unrealistic deadlines for its implementation. If you could not convince him to increase the duration of the work, you should not take on a project that you deliberately fill up.
Too complicated project
You understand that the project is just too tough for you. In this case, it is better to refuse or cooperate with those who can execute it. This is also the case when you are asked to do work that is non-core for you. For example, you have programmed the site, and the customer asks you to draw a flash banner.
Torn deadlines
The main problem with freelancers is the failure of the deadlines. This affects almost every second. This is not to say that freelancers do it intentionally. Problems arise because of the inability to plan their time and poor self-organization. You always want to go for a walk with a girl, play toys, read blogs, etc., and work is postponed until later. When the time comes to hand over the project, the freelancer sits at night and still does not have time. Learn how to plan your activities. Read articles about time management. And you do not have to sit at night and blush in front of customers.
But suppose the terrible happened - you have filled up the deadlines. What do unreliable subjects do in this case? That's right, they turn off ICQ, do not respond to letters, do not answer the phone, and then they say that the battery has sat down, the Internet and my beloved grandmother have died. Successful freelancers do exactly the opposite. Feel that you do not have time - warn the customer yourself. Be honest with him! Stay in touch. Solve a problem, but do not run from it! Half of the customers will appreciate your honesty and easily add more time. The other half will be outraged. Be patient, you are really to blame. Apologize and say the new real deadline. Those who will be outraged too much can be promised a discount or bonus work for the inconvenience. This is an effective method. You will lose some money, but keep your reputation.
Inability to complete an order
If in the course of work you realized that you took up an order that is still above your professional level, a serious problem arises. As time goes by, the customer is waiting for the result. The best option in this situation would be to find a subcontractor, another freelancer. The sooner you do this after realizing the problem, the better. Otherwise, deadlines will be broken. If you submit a project for subcontracting, you will lose some money, or even all. But at the same time fulfill the order, replenish the portfolio, save your reputation and relationships with the customer.
A simpler, but less attractive option is to apologize and get a refund. The customer will lose time and will be unhappy. The worst option is to pull the rubber. If you cannot complete the project on your own, then it will only get worse, the problem will not be resolved.
Problem customer
Despite all your precautions before starting work, you will still encounter problem customers. “And let's do it like that, but like this. And this button will move here, but this one back. No, I do not like it. There are people who are ready to move buttons for months, they do not like anything, they will force you to redo it time after time and demand new modifications. At some point you should stop. To tell the customer: stop, this is the last option, if you don’t like it - we are parting.
After parting in such a situation, I think it’s right not to return the prepayment. You honestly worked and it was not your fault that the customer himself did not know what he wanted. Give the source code.
Free-Lance is the largest exchange in the CIS. It is there that there are large orders and solvent customers. Your task is to be as noticeable as possible, and this can be achieved in two ways: buy paid accommodation and raise your account to the first page of the rubric. However, these methods are interrelated.
First of all, you will need to purchase an account PRO. It costs 570 rubles per month. Now the whole system is built in such a way that it is impossible to be noticeable without pro - there are too many restrictions (you will not be able to respond to some applications, do not fill out a portfolio with preview pictures, you will only have one specialty to choose from, lower rating, etc. ).
Next, you begin to pump your account. Complete the portfolio completely, this will bring you a maximum of 500 points. Respond to projects, if you are selected as a candidate or a performer, you will receive an additional point. Feedback from the freelancer gives 1 point, and from the customer immediately 10! Just entering the site brings the freelancer 1 point daily.
If you want to rise high in the rating, you will have to buy paid accommodation, as the money spent increases your rating. This is the most important factor. That is, the more you spend, the faster the rating grows.
The second most important criterion is customer recall in points after a transaction without risk. The higher the amount of the transaction, the more points you earn. But you also pay for this deal - 10% of the order amount. That is, the system is built in such a clever way that it encourages the freelancer to take on paid services. Otherwise, the rating does not rise high - reviews and paid services are everything.
Offer additional services
Offer the customer a little more than he originally wants. Think up for his site an additional module, to run through the catalogs, suggest a run through the bookmarks, etc. Additional service - extra money.
Collaborate with other freelancers
If you have successfully developed a website for a client, his trust in you will be great. He will consult with you to whom you can contact to promote the resource. Agree with a freelancer on SEO that in% you will give him clients. He can recommend you to his customers who need, for example, redesign.
Status "busy"
Expose periodically on freelance exchanges status "busy." Surprisingly, sometimes with this status the number of hits increases! Apparently, the customers' logic is as follows: if this person is busy, he has a lot of work, then he is really a worthwhile, sought-after specialist.
Good luck with your work!
I want to share with you some thoughts about successful freelancing.
1. Proper interaction with the customer is half the success.
Competent communication with the customer is half the success of the project. Remember, it’s not enough to be a good programmer or designer to be a successful freelancer. You are also a manager. Much depends on how you manage to sell your services, how you will communicate with the customer in the process of doing the work.
The customer is mainly interested in three things: the adequacy of the contractor, his experience (portfolio) and price. A little less - the timing of work.
To show that you are quite an adequate person to work with is the easiest of this list. Some freelancers forget about some simple things when communicating. Do not make the customer a fool, even if he really does not understand the question at all. Do not let him feel like a lamer. Explain to him the essence of the question without the use of narrow professional terms, advise the best implementation option. When communicating, do not use slang, contact the customer for "you", write without grammatical errors. Especially true when you talk to a potential client - you do not know anything about him. Maybe he is twice as old as you and the “hello” message is jarring him.
Show similar projects, if any. This greatly increases the chances that the customer will choose you. Call adequate terms, do not underestimate them to please the customer. Calculate your workload, can you really meet the deadline. It is better to plan with a margin, as often unforeseen circumstances arise - a friend called me to visit, they got sick, the Internet went out.
')
Every customer wants to pay less, get more. This is the normal desire of every client and buyer. But everything has its value. And not everyone understands this, trying to bring down the price. Keep your bar. You can make a small discount, but if the customer wants to drop the price in half - it means that this is simply not your client. Appreciate your work. The customer may have a lot of contrived reasons, with the help of which he will ask to change the price. Most Popular:
Now I only have this money for the project, but in the future I will have a lot of money orders for you . Someday maybe. This is not a reason to reduce the price.
Let's work for% of the profit of the future project . And then the customer why do we need it?
My boss has allocated a certain budget, I would be happy to pay more, but I can not . Virtually any budget can be revised. Not? But then this is a customer problem.
And Vasya Pupkin is cheaper . Why don't you order from him then?
Before starting work, when you have discussed all the conditions on icq, make a brief summary: I do this, such and such a term, such a price. That the customer confirmed that everything is correct. Even better, if there will be a technical task to which you can always refer. If the work is more or less difficult, then the TK should be mandatory.
It is important that you understand each other correctly before starting work, and not in the process. A clear statement of the problem is important!
I think it would not be superfluous to remind you that a freelancer should not suddenly disappear for three days, reply to e-mails at least during the day and periodically check messages in ICQ. If you are going on vacation, a business trip, a hike, then do not forget to notify the clients you are working with.
Ask the customer for contact details. ICQ and an account on free-lance is good, but it is better to have a phone number. It may be necessary if you need to resolve an issue promptly. If a legal entity works with you, find out the name of the employee, the name of the company, its address, corporate phone numbers. It happens that an employee leaves and “forgets” to pay for your work. Having contacts, you can contact the organization and try to continue working with its other representative.
If the scope of work is large, then break it up into stages and ask the customer to pay for each stage separately. This is beneficial to both of you - the customer minimizes the risks, you are stimulated to productive work (a large amount of the prepayment can psychologically relax - “oh, how much money immediately fell”, without a prepayment you strongly risk).
After completing the work, do not forget to ask for feedback (in your thread on the forum, on the freelance website). The reviews draw attention to other customers.
2. The path from beginner to freelance star
Conventionally, all freelancers can be divided into 3 groups: novices, middle class (most of them) and freelancing stars. Each group has its own characteristics, price levels, methods of attracting customers.
Novice
In addition to your skills you have nothing. No portfolio, no reviews, no loyal customers. Beginner's strategy is simple - take on any orders. For minimal money, without prepayment, on any conditions. Your main task now is to build a portfolio. Work even for a review. In any case, the work will fall in the portfolio, and if the customer likes, then you will receive a positive review and, perhaps, already paid orders from him.
Participate in contests. If you don’t win, the job will remain, and maybe you will be noticed. Do for yourself. Especially important for designers. Draw a corporate identity for a fictional company, make a design layout for a fictional site. Anyway, no one will check. Do the work for your friends. Free or per review.
Middle class
This group includes the majority of freelancers. It can also be divided by at least 3 (by price, by level of work, etc.), but we will not go deeper. Freelancers of this group already have a well-established portfolio, a certain number of jobs and compete with each other in price and quality.
Most freelancers receive orders through their old customers. One told the other, another advised the third, and so on. But this does not mean that you do not need to look for projects yourself.
Offer your services in professional communities and forums. Reply to projects in forums and freelance resources. Just do it right. In no case do not leave sample answers - customers do not like them. Do not leave answers in the spirit of “I will do, contact ICQ” - this is meaningless and only annoying. Give a clear answer with the price, terms, description of the work. List similar projects that you have implemented. Leave a link to your portfolio. Any customer is pleased to receive detailed information, and not a formal reply.
Keep a blog on a professional theme. In the future, this may give a good influx of customers.
Create your website with a portfolio. If you can not site - start a blog, where you will upload your work. However, now it is not necessary, as you can throw a potential customer link to your profile on free-lance.ru. But this option has disadvantages: a). The site can be promoted in search engines (in its own region), the page in free-lance will be more difficult to promote. b). An off-line customer may be unaware of the availability of freelance resources, and here you throw a link to him yourself - these are my competitors.
Try to determine your specialty. Or choose at least 2-3 related specialties. The man-band is not always great. As a customer, I immediately get scared away by freelancers who have in their portfolio works on promotion, website design, icons and copyright to boot. This means that a person is not able to do anything really high quality, all by little.
The deeper the specialization, the more success you can achieve in the chosen field. You can, for example, draw only icons and characters or specialize in the design of portals and web 2.0 services. Specialization is not chosen immediately, but with the advent of experience and a steady stream of orders. If you immediately declare a fairly narrow specialization, without having the reputation of a strong professional in this matter, you can simply remain without orders.
Register as a PI with a simplified tax system. Some customers of legal entities are not able to pay in cash or webmoney. Specify prices, taking into account the fact that 6% will have to pay as a tax.
If you do not want to keep accounts yourself, contact a specialized company or a freelancer, once a quarter they will make you a report for a small amount of money. You will only invoice customers and acts of work performed. You do not even need to buy 1C - find the Word templates on the Internet and enter the data into them.
In addition to the IP account in the bank, you should also have other possibilities for receiving money: webmoney with a personal certificate, Yandex-money, a bank card for individuals. face. Using evenly all the means of receiving money you reduce the chances of attracting the attention of the tax and financial monitoring services.
Freelance stars
The smallest group of freelancers. Work for a long time and stable. They have a constant circle of solvent customers (often they are well-known companies), they occupy the first places on the freelance exchanges, they have an unshakable reputation in professional communities, they are written about in blogs.
Their name is already a brand. There is no need to search for orders for such freelancers, there are already enough customers. At a certain point, the flow of regular orders exceeds the physical capabilities of the contractor. In this case, some freelancers create their team. Their name is a formed brand, while others can do real work. The well-known freelancer takes the order, communicates with the client, but he only performs one third of the orders, and gives the rest to the “younger performers” or submits them to the subcontract. You can hire a manager. The manager communicates with clients, and the freelancer himself is more focused on order execution.
But the most popular option for an oversupply of orders is price increase. Thereby, a certain number of clients are cut off to a comfortable freelancer. If there is a lot of orders again, the prices are revised again.
3. How to protect yourself from scam
There is no better protection than prepay. Therefore, always take an advance payment for everything (unless you are a newbie working on a portfolio or the customer has already established itself as reliable). Customers fear that they throw, even more freelancers. Fears do not grow from scratch, unfortunately, there are really a lot of scammers. Therefore, no one will give you 100% prepayment. It is reasonable to ask for 30-50% of the cost of work.
If the customer does not agree even to this - convince. Give him all the contacts you can, send a scan of your passport, contact your loyal customers, show your old profiles on authoritative forums and communities, show high BL webmoney wallet. Your task is to convince the client that you are a reliable partner and are not going to throw him.
If after all this the customer does not want to transfer the prepayment - “I was already thrown, now I pay only for the work done”, then this is an occasion to think about whether the customer is not a fraudster. They like to hide behind the phrase that they have already been deceived.
Another option is to offer the customer a transaction without risk on free-lance.ru. For the customer, this service is free, you pay 10% of the order. Yes, this is a loss of money for a freelancer, but this is better than losing the entire order (however, you can adjust the price in a big way).
If you received an advance payment, this does not mean that you will receive the rest of the money without any serious consequences. It will not be superfluous to insure if the type of work allows. Do not give the source to the customer before you get all the money. That is, if you draw a design - send jpg first, not psd, make a website - upload it to your hosting, not the customer’s server. Some designers still insure that they even apply a watermark to jpg. But this is too much; it is unpleasant for me as a customer to look at such layouts.
Another option to increase your security is to enter into a contract. But this is rather a measure of moral pressure on the customer than a real tool in case something goes wrong. Customers and performers are often located in different cities, no one will go to court for hundreds of kilometers.
4. Why it is worth sometimes to abandon projects
It is not always worth taking up an order, even if it seems to be very profitable financially. There are cases when it is better to refuse.
Lack of time
You understand that the current level of loading does not allow you to take a new order. However, if the order is very tasty, the temptation is great. The freelancer begins to convince himself that he will be in time - “I will sleep less, I will not watch TV, figach, figach, figach”. In reality, all this does not work. You either fill up the deadlines for several projects, or there will be solid bugs. In addition, the health after the period of "fig-fig" is exactly what you learn.
If you have several new orders, of which you will have time to make only one - choose the most interesting one. Or screw up the prices. Some customers will disappear by themselves.
The customer categorically does not want to pay an advance
About prepayment, I wrote above. There is a risk that the customer threw. It is better to abandon the project than to regret wasted time.
Customer inadequate
To the inadequacy can be attributed to a number of signs. For example, if the customer is rude to you, stop communicating immediately. Nothing good will come of such cooperation. A number of customers demonstrate the position “I pay money, so do as I say” (even if it is contrary to common sense). You did not hire him into slavery, you are not a computer mouse to be manipulated. A project is a dialogue between a customer and a contractor, and not the dictates of someone alone.
Incomprehensible essence
The customer can not articulate what he really wants. Perhaps he has not yet decided. You do not understand his expectations. The customer ignores clarifying questions or his answers confuse you even more.
The likelihood that the result does not like the customer is very high.
Customer's bad reputation
Even if the customer in communication seems to be an adequate person, but you have read / heard a few reviews about the problems of other freelancers when working with this person, then it is better to refuse the order. The client may say that these freelancers are such lazy, dolphins and non-professionals. But if a person could not work together with several different people, then where is the guarantee that it will work together with you?
If the customer has a reputation for scammers, then this is also a reason to refuse to work with him.
Unrealistic deadlines
Discard the project if the customer puts unrealistic deadlines for its implementation. If you could not convince him to increase the duration of the work, you should not take on a project that you deliberately fill up.
Too complicated project
You understand that the project is just too tough for you. In this case, it is better to refuse or cooperate with those who can execute it. This is also the case when you are asked to do work that is non-core for you. For example, you have programmed the site, and the customer asks you to draw a flash banner.
5. The main problems of freelancing
Torn deadlines
The main problem with freelancers is the failure of the deadlines. This affects almost every second. This is not to say that freelancers do it intentionally. Problems arise because of the inability to plan their time and poor self-organization. You always want to go for a walk with a girl, play toys, read blogs, etc., and work is postponed until later. When the time comes to hand over the project, the freelancer sits at night and still does not have time. Learn how to plan your activities. Read articles about time management. And you do not have to sit at night and blush in front of customers.
But suppose the terrible happened - you have filled up the deadlines. What do unreliable subjects do in this case? That's right, they turn off ICQ, do not respond to letters, do not answer the phone, and then they say that the battery has sat down, the Internet and my beloved grandmother have died. Successful freelancers do exactly the opposite. Feel that you do not have time - warn the customer yourself. Be honest with him! Stay in touch. Solve a problem, but do not run from it! Half of the customers will appreciate your honesty and easily add more time. The other half will be outraged. Be patient, you are really to blame. Apologize and say the new real deadline. Those who will be outraged too much can be promised a discount or bonus work for the inconvenience. This is an effective method. You will lose some money, but keep your reputation.
Inability to complete an order
If in the course of work you realized that you took up an order that is still above your professional level, a serious problem arises. As time goes by, the customer is waiting for the result. The best option in this situation would be to find a subcontractor, another freelancer. The sooner you do this after realizing the problem, the better. Otherwise, deadlines will be broken. If you submit a project for subcontracting, you will lose some money, or even all. But at the same time fulfill the order, replenish the portfolio, save your reputation and relationships with the customer.
A simpler, but less attractive option is to apologize and get a refund. The customer will lose time and will be unhappy. The worst option is to pull the rubber. If you cannot complete the project on your own, then it will only get worse, the problem will not be resolved.
Problem customer
Despite all your precautions before starting work, you will still encounter problem customers. “And let's do it like that, but like this. And this button will move here, but this one back. No, I do not like it. There are people who are ready to move buttons for months, they do not like anything, they will force you to redo it time after time and demand new modifications. At some point you should stop. To tell the customer: stop, this is the last option, if you don’t like it - we are parting.
After parting in such a situation, I think it’s right not to return the prepayment. You honestly worked and it was not your fault that the customer himself did not know what he wanted. Give the source code.
6. Promotion account on free-lance.ru
Free-Lance is the largest exchange in the CIS. It is there that there are large orders and solvent customers. Your task is to be as noticeable as possible, and this can be achieved in two ways: buy paid accommodation and raise your account to the first page of the rubric. However, these methods are interrelated.
First of all, you will need to purchase an account PRO. It costs 570 rubles per month. Now the whole system is built in such a way that it is impossible to be noticeable without pro - there are too many restrictions (you will not be able to respond to some applications, do not fill out a portfolio with preview pictures, you will only have one specialty to choose from, lower rating, etc. ).
Next, you begin to pump your account. Complete the portfolio completely, this will bring you a maximum of 500 points. Respond to projects, if you are selected as a candidate or a performer, you will receive an additional point. Feedback from the freelancer gives 1 point, and from the customer immediately 10! Just entering the site brings the freelancer 1 point daily.
If you want to rise high in the rating, you will have to buy paid accommodation, as the money spent increases your rating. This is the most important factor. That is, the more you spend, the faster the rating grows.
The second most important criterion is customer recall in points after a transaction without risk. The higher the amount of the transaction, the more points you earn. But you also pay for this deal - 10% of the order amount. That is, the system is built in such a clever way that it encourages the freelancer to take on paid services. Otherwise, the rating does not rise high - reviews and paid services are everything.
7. A few more points about freelancing
Offer additional services
Offer the customer a little more than he originally wants. Think up for his site an additional module, to run through the catalogs, suggest a run through the bookmarks, etc. Additional service - extra money.
Collaborate with other freelancers
If you have successfully developed a website for a client, his trust in you will be great. He will consult with you to whom you can contact to promote the resource. Agree with a freelancer on SEO that in% you will give him clients. He can recommend you to his customers who need, for example, redesign.
Status "busy"
Expose periodically on freelance exchanges status "busy." Surprisingly, sometimes with this status the number of hits increases! Apparently, the customers' logic is as follows: if this person is busy, he has a lot of work, then he is really a worthwhile, sought-after specialist.
Good luck with your work!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/80864/
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