How to protect yourself as a freelancer from clients refusing to pay?
As a freelancer it becomes difficult knowing who to trust, and who not. I've been put in situations where a client refuses to pay after the work is completed, or a few who want more done besides what was in the contract. How do you handle these situations to get what you earned?
Answers ( 1 )
Anyone who does any sort of service work or free lance has had nightmare clients or those who simply don’t understand what they are paying for and how the process should work. There are also some snakes in the grass out there.
A good rule of thumb is to establish price guidelines with a strict sequence of payments for each phase of the work. They are purchasing a design process, not a piece of work that materialized. Your work agreement (contract) states the fees and the time schedule. Include that you have the right to reproduce what is created as an example of your work for promotional purposes. Spell out in detail how many consultations or revisions the client gets at each stage. The work begins for each phase when payment is received.
If they can’t decide whether to hire you based on your portfolio of sample work, they should keep shopping. Accept no “design challenges” or “Let’s see what you can do with this idea before we hire you.” All they get for free is to provide you with an initial description of what final products they want and your quote for the total cost of those services. If you don’t want to provide a menu of prices on your website, you can have a rate sheet that you email to potential clients once they contact you.
The initial payment is for Phase 1: collecting information from the client, having them make various choices (styles, colors, preferences, etc) and doing a bunch of conceptual thumbnails. Phase 2 is several (two, three, however you work) rounds of refined versions where they narrow down the concepts presented and ask for changes. Define things, any vagueness is an invitation for indecisiveness and dragging things out. Perhaps several people have to meet to discuss the work thus far and vote on these decisions. Stay away from mushy, undefined procedures that allow endless back and forth exchanges until you are working for twenty five cents per hour. Spell out what happens and on what timetable. If you break down each phase into billable hours and they max them out, you can give them the choice of moving on to the next phase or paying for additional hours within that phase.
The final image submitted for approval can be a lower res jpeg (sharp enough to be viewed at the size submitted but gets crappy when resized) and have a pale watermark across it that says “For Final Approval” on it. If they reject that final version, you’re done. They can follow what is stated in your agreement and purchase another revision round if they choose. They could also hire another artist, or use free clip art or stick with their old stuff or whatever. If they really have a change of heart or just aren’t happy with your work, they can pull the plug at this point. They’ve paid for your services thus far.
If they accept it, they submit payment and then you send them the deliverables in high resolution, no watermarks and in all file formats agreed to.
It reduces problems if at each step you remind them “As per our agreement, we have finished Phase 1. To begin Phase 2, please submit the agreed upon fee of $xxx.00 to continue the design process.”
For example, something song the lines of:
“The client will submit the Phase One fee of $1,000 in order to begin work and will receive (A, B, C) within x calendar days.
Phase Two will begin when the Client submits the revision and development fee of $250 and receive x revisions within x calendar days.
After this is complete, the Client will receive a lower resolution watermarked version of the final design for approval.
The client will accept the final version by paying the deliverables fee of $250 and will receive the deliverables which consists of Blah, blah, blah within x calendar days.
If for any reason the final version is not accepted, the client will keep whatever work has been done to date and may sign a new agreement to do further work or discontinue the design process and seek other solutions.”
You want the client to know what to expect to minimize confusion, and you want boundaries in place. Remember that all problems are not because clients are grifters or idiots, they are busy people and making use of your services is just one part of their multifaceted day - they can be unintentionally problematic unless you lay things out clearly. People who balk at clear guidelines should be politely thanked and avoided.
Refer them to another service provider who you can not stand…