Quit Being a Nightmare Client

Alright clients, I'm calling you out. No not all of you, just most of you.

With the recent scarcity of money and jobs in many industries worldwide The economy blows and many of you in charge of teams or projects are switching to contract / freelance workers to complete those projects. Or you may just be contracting people as a way to test them out before you offer them a full-time position.

Either way, I'm here to prepare you.

Many of you have never worked with a freelancer before and it shows. This causes frustration for both you and the freelancers, and while it can be avoided with some communication, the business world moves quickly and there is rarely time for proper dialogue. Going in educated benefits everyone. The web is my business, so while all of these points apply to the web, most can be applied to any freelance work.

What you can expect

Pay a higher rate - you are not paying for medical insurance, retirement funds, social security, sick days, vacation days, or facilities for them to work in. Expect to spend some of that money.

Sign a contract - these protect freelancers and clients. I'm not saying you're a bad person, freelancers just want to prevent getting intentionally (or otherwise) screwed. If you see a clause in a contract you find ridiculous, ask. Chances are there is a very real world (and very unfortunate) example of why it exists.

Answer some questions - I always start clients off with a questionnaire, even if I'm going to repeat them in our first meeting. Answer the questions. They allow everyone to identify goals and create a plan for getting there and you may find that some concepts take shape more easily on paper.

Ask some questions - If you need answers, ask. I never mind answering client questions because they generally prevent future misunderstandings. Assumptions are one thing when you have a solid understanding of what's going on. They are quite another when you are in unfamiliar territory.

Do some homework - I'll be honest, this one is personal. There's a difference between hiring someone to create a physical book for you and write a story for you. Websites are closer to creating a book than writing it, and most freelancers will require most if not all of your content (text, images, video) to be provided up front. You may think, "well that's stupid, I'm paying them, why does it matter if they have my content or not." The answer is because hounding you for your content is about as much fun as being hounded.

Bottom Line

Freelancers aren't perfect either, but knowing these facts ahead of time can get you past a lot of basic problems.

Most freelancers are happy to reduce rates for return customers who were easy to work with the first time around, so if you're saying "I don't care about making friends, it's business," keep the dollar signs in mind.