How To Avoid Being Taken Advantage Of By Clients When Freelancing

thank you for sharing the info my friend!
much appreciated. keep up the good work ^_^

I don’t think this is as black and white as it seems. There are various factors that could affect your decision. e.g., if your client is very likely to refer other clients to you, it wouldn’t hurt to spend one hour to keep him happy and secure a few referrals. If you have nothing better that you really want to do, then it doesn’t hurt to do a favor. If the client does expect more favors, then you can always fall back on your contract.

There are many more reasons that make it situation specific, but I think in general the question to ask is “do the costs (time, opportunity cost, etc) outweigh the benefits” and go by that.

That being said, when making your contract, you should always specify how many revisions etc. on the contract!

@Cliff – It is important to get paid for your hard earned time. As much as you would like to keep those clients happy, when you start giving in and doing extras, they will want more and more.

The revisions are fine. This is usually a given in the contract on what is covered. When the client agrees that the project is indeed closed, this is where things either fall into a new contract or site maintenance fee.
.-= Nile´s last blog ..How To Use Social Networking To Build Your Brand =-.

@cliff Likelihood of a referral is one reason to NOT spend extra time on a client. They will likely tell their friend how much extra time you spent on the project for free and it will be expected of you on the next job.

@Nile @Pat

I see where you guys are coming from and I agree – it is harmful if your extra time is expected.

However, I do believe that it is situation dependent – whether the benefits do outweigh the costs. If not then certainly don’t do it. But they key is to always have your contract to back you

@Cliff – agreed there are different situations. I will be focusing on bringing more freelance related articles to SmashingShare, including dealing with different situations and more.
.-= Nile´s last blog ..How To Use Social Networking To Build Your Brand =-.

Thanks guys for your feedback. Nile has done great job here pointing out how to avoid such clients who take advantage from freelancers.

If the client was really hot, I might let her take advantage of me.

Just a little

[...] How To Avoid Being Taken Advantage Of By Clients When Freelancing [...]

There is a case for doing giveaway stuff sometimes. Sure, the contract specifies everyone’s obligations, but anyone is free to do more than that if they think there is a longer term upside. But if you start giving away something make sure the recipient knows this and agrees this is not part of your obligation. You don’t get points for it otherwise, actually the reverse. It looks like you screwed up and had to rework something.

@cliff In order to enforce a rule, you have to enforce it all the time. If you only enforce it sometimes, they have a tendency to refer to those and always be asking, it’s quite draining after awhile.

More importantly if you don’t hold your ground all the time they also will lose respect for you and your contract, and your professionalism will suffer in the eyes of the client. We would like to think we will be on better terms with the client if we just do small favors, but in the end it never really works out that way.

@j I understand what you’re saying, however, it’s not quite like operant conditioning the client. I think Roger better articulates what I’m trying to say. But I do agree with you j, doing small favors often never really works out how we want it to…

@RP LOL

@RP L0L

I’ve only been freelancing for 3 months, give or take, and it soon becomes clear to me that the commodity here is time.

I want to get referrals yes, but if in the end I end up with unreasonable clients, I agree with Nile that you need to cut loose.

I’ve seen that things work better when I conduct things business-like. I understand where you come from, Cliff but so far I haven’t found such approach to work well.

[...] How To Avoid Being Taken Advantage Of By Clients When Freelancing [...]

Nice points. I think these tips will apply only with new clients. When you’re working with repeat clients, sometimes, giving away small freebies can foster customer loyalty. Still, all expectations and goals must be clear from square one before even any work is started.
.-= Issa´s last blog ..Hiring a Freelancer? 6 Things You Must Consider =-.

@cliff In order to enforce a rule, you have to enforce it all the time. If you only enforce it sometimes, they have a tendency to refer to those and always be asking, it’s quite draining after awhile.

More importantly if you don’t hold your ground all the time they also will lose respect for you and your contract, and your professionalism will suffer in the eyes of the client. We would like to think we will be on better terms with the client if we just do small favors, but in the end it never really works out that way.

[...] How To Avoid Being Taken Advantage Of By Clients When Freelancing [...]

great post waheed.

Some of you work for tougher clients than I do.
I find there is a fair amount of give and take with repeat clients. I screw up sometimes and they accommodate that. They screw up sometimes and I accommodate that. To our mutual benefit.

I do agree there is a danger of being ripped off (on both sides) but as long as everyone brings a genuine goodwill to the relationship (and do you really want to work in a different environment from that?) then we can make it work.

I consider this approach to be an implementation of the Christian principle of forgiveness.

This is a wonderful opinion. The things mentioned are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone.
——–
hedden
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Cruise Ships

How do you go about repeat business with the same client, do you have the sign a contract for every project? What are the other options?

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