It's Andy Fish!

Another great question, this time not from a student but from a fellow professional because we all deal with this throughout our careers;

Q-I have a client I’ve done work for before. Knew what he wanted from the beginning so was a delight to work with. I have received  repeat work from him. He started out like before knowing what he wanted, but then there was a can you add this change and can you add that. I’m spending more time on layout/design. He hasn’t even picked out which change for the final project and  these changes can go on forever.

I have since told him that changes will incur an extra fee. I should have anticipated something like this happening, but based on his track record it wasn’t a thought.

How do I put a stop from this happening right from the beginning? 

A-Yeah I hate this one. When good clients go bad. I hate it primarily because yes we freelancers do absolutely take into account previous interactions when we deal with clients.

i.e. you’ve done work with them previously and it was smooth as glass– you tend to cut that person a little break because it’s “Easy money” — the only thing is there’s no guarantee each gig will be as easy as the last.

All right so what do we do? Let’s tackle this particular situation first, then how to avoid the same thing in the future;

First, it sounds like what changed between a previous assignment and this one is he’s getting input from someone else. Could be a spouse, could be a committee of folks, could be a nephew who is in art school, and that’s what’s causing the gridlock.

1- Because you’re already a pro you handled it correctly by telling him additional changes will incur an additional fee. As a client I have an expection of at least two drafts but after that you are within your rights to explain the additional fee. I would also mention to them that you value them as a client, but delays in giving you feedback will force his project back a bit, so the faster he can respond the faster you can get it wrapped up.

9 times out of 10 just the threat of additional charges snaps a client out of endless choices and everything works out fine.

2- You should also inform the client that in order to make whatever deadline you agreed to he needs to make some decisions by X date. If there was no talk of deadline and you don’t want this to go on forever you might want to word it along the lines of “if we can’t get this thing figured out by X date you might have to look for someone else because somehow we’re not gelling on this one.” << Never a good option, but better than having a project with an endless deadline, even if it means losing a client (which is actually less likely than you would think).

SO how to avoid this in the first place?

Remember how I said we freelancers often base our pricing on our read of a client or past history? Let that go. Assume everyone is going to be more difficult than you hope.

We recently had a client who was a Junior Editor at a Publishing Company– that set off a ton of flags– JR Editor means they likely answer to an Associate Editor or higher, and very likely a large group of people. Nothing brings more confusion and gridlock than doing work for a committee.

For ALL CLIENTS have a standard contract that you use before you start any project. This is Freelance 101– I don’t begin a sketch or a preliminary drawing until there is a signed contract. Because an oral contract is only as good as the paper it’s printed on.

At the bottom should be four things;

1- A deadline of when the project is to be wrapped.

2- A spelled out explanation of what work you’ll be doing in detail. Imagine a Judge having to understand simply by reading what it was you were hired to produce.

3- How many drafts are included in this initial cost estimate. Me personally my contracts all say TWO DRAFTS. Any more than that is charged $XX for each additional revision.

4- A Kill Order. What happens if you do the work and the client decides to go with someone else because things just don’t work out? They don’t get the deposit back, or if they paid up front you decide the % that will be refunded (if any– for example if I did two drafts and they don’t like either one I filled the contract so no refund (and no soup!) for them!

Again, remember everything you’re writing is not just so you and the client understand what’s supposed to happen, it’s so that a Judge and possibly a Jury are able to understand it.

And keep this in mind, in 35 years of ongoing Freelance I’ve never had to take a client to court, not once. Please also remember I’m not an attorney, although I once played a District Attorney at a Court House many years ago– another story for another time– so get yourself some legal counsel with your contract.

I know a lot of new freelancers as well as some established one that think a contract like this might scare away clients– and it might– but I’m telling you the client you scare away is the one that will have you do 87 different versions or 400 man hours on a project you budgeted four hours for. In other words, better they opted out than to be stuck in the hell of endless revisions.