SpyreStudios

Web Design and Development Magazine

  • Design
  • Showcase
  • Inspirational
  • Tutorials
  • CSS
  • Resources
  • Tools
  • UX
  • More
    • Mobile
    • Usability
    • HTML5
    • Business
    • Freebies
    • Giveaway
    • About SpyreStudios
    • Advertise On SpyreStudios
    • Get In Touch With Us

Keep Scammers & Bad Clients Out of Your Freelancing Business

May 11, 2012 by laura

You’ve probably heard about them. Clients who won’t pay. Clients who treat freelancers poorly. Clients who pile on more work than the freelancer agreed to.

You may have even had the misfortune of working for one yourself. It’s not uncommon for freelance designers to wind up working for a scammer or a bad client.

Some freelance designers view this as an inevitable part of freelancing, but I say that you can keep many scammers and bad clients out of your freelancing business if you take the proper precautions.

In this post, I’ll share a checklist to help you identify scammers and bad clients. If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Is That Client Legit or Just a Tire Kicker?

Checkpoint #1: Reputation

Just like you have an online reputation, most potential clients also have an online reputation. Before accepting work, be sure to check your prospect’s reputation using the following steps:

  • Type their name and variations of their name into a search engine.
  • Look for their accounts on social media.
  • Find their web page and examine it carefully to see if it looks legit.
  • See if they are rated by the Better Business Bureau or mentioned by scam-busting sites.

You may be surprised how much you can learn about a company online. Many scammers have a continuing pattern of scamming freelancers. A little homework on your part can keep you from being their next victim.

Remember, while a legit client could have a few of these traits; be extra cautious about any prospect who looks bad in all of these areas.

Checkpoint #2: Too Many Meetings

Meetings take your time. Unpaid meeting time reduces your income.

While it’s okay to offer to meet a client who seems serious about hiring you, be careful not to allocate too much of your time to such meetings.

It’s not unusual for a so-called client to ask a freelance designer to meet them about a “project”–only to pick the freelancer’s brain for several hours or even longer.

This is often a scam to get free consulting work from the freelancer. The so-called client never intends to hire the designer. When they’ve got what they need from you, they’ll implement your ideas using in-house staff.

You can weed out many of these scam artists by placing strict limits on free meetings and by making sure that the meeting is dedicated to them describing their project to you. Many freelancers charge a meeting fee for any meeting time that exceeds an hour.

Checkpoint #3: Prepayment

You should be requesting that initial clients pay a partial deposit up front. Do not start, I repeat, DO NOT start work until you have that initial deposit.

The amount of the initial deposit varies, but most freelance designers charge anywhere from 1/3 of the total project amount to 1/2 of the total project amount.

The initial deposit shows good faith on the client’s part and demonstrates that they are serious about hiring you for the job. They are now invested in your success.

Keep in mind that if you have trouble getting the initial deposit from a client, chances are that you’ll also have trouble collecting the final payment. Why take an unnecessary chance?

Checkpoint #4: The Freelancing Agreement

You should have a freelancing agreement for all larger projects. Ideally, this would be a contract between you and the client, but at the very least it should be a written description of the project terms that both of you agreed to.

A good agreement describes the scope of the work, the project deadline, and the payment terms. You should even get a freelancing agreement from trusted clients. It’s just too easy to forget the terms of an oral agreement.

Having such an agreement protects both you and the client. If your prospective client is honest, there’s no excuse for them not signing the agreement. If they’re not honest, well…in that case you don’t want to work for them anyway, do you?

Checkpoint #5: The Great Rate Debate

One of the first ways to weed out scammers and bad clients is to ask what their budget for the project is. If it’s way too low for the amount of work they are asking for, this is a good sign that they will not be a good client.

When confronted with an extremely low rate, too many web designers try to convince the prospect to pay more. This is a bad idea. Even if you win the rate debate and convince the prospect to pay more, they are already unhappy because they’ve gone over their anticipated budget.

If there’s a huge gap between what the client expects to pay and what you need to charge, your best option may be to walk away before they become a bad client.

Many freelancers would also tell you that lower paying clients are often more picky (and more unreasonable) than higher paying clients. In my own experience, I’ve also found this to be true.

Checkpoint #6: Not Knowing What They Want

The last checkpoint is very important for freelance designers. More than any other freelancer, you are likely to be greeted with the words, “I don’t know what I want, but I’ll know it when I see it.”

Such a “client” can’t even begin to describe what they expect from you, yet somehow they want you to tackle their project.

It’s nearly impossible to get a clear scope of work from such a client. Don’t even try. You may find yourself caught in an endless loop of revisions and rework until the client sees what he or she likes (which could be never).

If you show them a few samples of your work and maybe a few other designs online and they still can’t give you enough to go on, it’s time to move on. They aren’t a good client for you.

Your Turn

It isn’t inevitable that you get saddled with bad clients and scammers. You can keep them out of your freelancing design business. In this post I hope that I’ve shown you how.

What checkpoints would you add to help freelance designers avoid bad clients and scammers? Share your insights in the comments.

Image by Lee J Haywood

Filed Under: Article, Business Tagged With: Avoid Bad Clients, Bad Clients, Freelance Design, Freelancing, Scammers

Recent Posts

  • 31 Fresh Design Elements for Spring and Easter
  • 10 Templates for Music Concert Flyers
  • How to Build a Web Scraper Using Node.js
  • Best PHP Books, Courses and Tutorials in 2022
  • How to Get Your First Web Design Client

Archives

  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008

Categories

  • Accessibility
  • Android
  • Apps
  • Art
  • Article
  • Blogging
  • Books
  • Bootstrap
  • Business
  • CSS
  • Design
  • Development
  • Ecommerce
  • Fireworks
  • Flash
  • Freebies
  • Freelance
  • General
  • Giveaway
  • Graphic Design
  • HTML5
  • Icons
  • Illustrator
  • InDesign
  • Infographics
  • Inspirational
  • Interview
  • Jobs
  • jQuery
  • Learning
  • Logos
  • Matrix
  • Minimalism
  • Mobile
  • Motion Graphics
  • Music
  • News
  • Photoshop
  • PHP
  • Promoted
  • Rails
  • Resources
  • Showcase
  • Tools
  • Tutorial
  • Twitter
  • Typography
  • Uncategorized
  • Usability
  • UX
  • Wallpapers
  • Wireframing
  • WordPress
  • Work

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

SpyreStudios © 2022