14
Since you are training yourself as a freelancer, you are also training yourself as a project manager, finance manager, negotiator and boss. Freelancing is just a group name for 5-6 roles (I think that once a guy told me that I am doing the work for 6 men). So besides training your coding skills, you'll have to train other skills as well.
One of them is ...
13
Is it possible? Yes, I've done that - work for multiple clients at the same time - for most of my time as a freelancer.
How is it possible? For most clients (at least in my case) some weeks there's a lot of work (say building a new feature), some weeks there's little (them testing that feature, and responding to questions). That's part of the skill-set of a ...
12
The easiest way to handle the short-notice work is to set up a Service Level Agreement (SLA). You can document how much notice the client must give, and how soon you will act, with financial requirements in each direction.
Get this agreed, signed by management. Implement a basic ticket handling system and boom, you can bill extra for the urgent stuff.
That ...
10
It's not uncommon for freelance developers to charge double-time for last minute, urgent items. In fact, I recommend it.
As freelancers, we often get 'last minute urgent work' through no fault of our own.
In effect, charging a premium for 'urgent' work is a good way to train clients to respect your worth and your time - but also provide an option that will ...
10
Well I also did some deductions after I was late in the project. I took down my hourly price 25%. In the end, the client was happy, but I am not sure I did the right way.
After this event, I started informing clients as soon as I run across the bottleneck or slow task by explaining them why I estimated atask for X hours and now realize it will take Y hours....
10
she still owes me for the work I've done
How long has she owed you and how much? If she's past due on a payment, or owes you thousands, that could be enough reason to stop right there.
But should I refund her any money because I'm quitting?
Not unless you had a formal agreement to do work that you haven't already done, or she paid you for work you haven'...
9
In literal terms, be your own boss in every sense of the word.
When I find that motivation for client projects is slipping I fall into "boss" mode. That is, I set a schedule for work and adhere to it as if I had a boss. It doesn't have to be a strict 9 to 5 schedule, but a block of time -- 4, 6 or 8 hrs -- every day where I will not touch anything other ...
9
I tell customers who ask for detailed itemization of time usage that "this is not a service I provide". If pressed, I note that tracking that level of detail for him would create administrative overhead for you, and that you would either have to tack that time on to his bill, or adjust your rates to compensate. Since your goal is to provide value to your ...
8
In my experience, it depends on the client.
Some clients like to micro manage and in this case it is probably better to wait until the website is nearing completion before showing them.
Other clients may have some useful input along the way and can be helpful.
The problem with a new client is that you may not be able to tell which type of client you have.
...
7
I myself got in the trap of "the desire to work only on my personal projects" but the problem is that you need cash without which your personal projects (until they'll pay-off) are domed to failure.
I tried to work less hours on personal projects and be more organized but I failed. So, this is what I did and worked for my case:
I shifted all my attention ...
7
You cannot control if they work, nor you should. You should control their result!
Make a good system of tasks and milestones and make work-hour calculations for each task. If they are beginners, add some percentage to it and tell them to stick to that calculations meaning that they will be paid for those specific work hours only. All hours above that is ...
7
I would say that your rate is low.
If you remember, freelancers rates are higher than normal rates because with our work we have to save money for rainy periods. So for example, if $20/h is enough for you to live through the whole year and annual average of your work is 50% (50% of all your time), then your rate must not be lower than $40/h. This way, you ...
6
I myself am from Europe. I think Easter is at the same time for many people.
Anyway.
Your client is negotiating with you. And you should do the same with him.
€700 is a good start and in this case you should expect €600. It will be OK to deliver until Saturday (April 19, 2014) only if you get at least €600. And, for the future, you should keep an eye on ...
6
In my experience this is a huge flag. For one reason or another trust has broken down with the client, which is indicative by them asking for an itemized report.
One way to salvage the relationship is to simply ask them what is the motivation behind the request for an itemized report? Ask them if they feel like they're getting less than what they paid for? ...
6
For the best result, I think it's important to:
let the client know as soon as possible that you may not be able to
meet the deadline (this gives the client the maximum amount of time to make alternative arrangements if needed)
be honest and explain why (it may be something out of your control)
find out what the impact to the client will be (it may not be ...
6
Here's my opinion and practice....
I never respond or contact clients during any time I want to myself, ever.
That is to say.. I don't respond to or contact clients before 9am, after 5pm, on weekends or on holidays - even if I happen to be working. If I get an email from a client at 6pm Friday night.. I do not respond until 9 am Monday at the earliest. I ...
6
Generally, clients buy a freelancer's time. Using that logic, all time spent on client work is invoiced, regardless of the work.
I never heard of clients wanting different rates for work on prototype versus the actual product - and since both will consume 100% of the freelancers time, it seems reasonable that they cost the same.
A reasonable angle could be ...
5
While you certainly don't need someone with the skillset of a developer or designer, you do need someone who understands the processes thoroughly. There's nothing more annoying to an educated client than dealing with an uneducated company representative. So, skills - probably no. But, understanding - definitely yes. If that means you need to train someone, ...
5
One thing I've learned to really appreciate is the power of agile development. Too often did I spend too much time second guessing the requester, creating something I was sure would be appreciated just to find out that they didn't like a button where it was or that they wanted changes which were very difficult to implement at that point.
The problem is ...
5
I schedule planned work for less than 40 hours a week. (Typically for me it is closer to 25.) If nothing else comes in, then I usually continue to work on planned and try to get ahead. If other things do come in, I have a buffer to work with.
That doesn't help 100% of the time - sometimes lots of things come in at once, but it does help.
5
Good question and one which most freelancers can probably relate to!
I think the best way to handle your workload is to educate clients that you are only one person and will do your best to responsibly manage the competing demands of all your clients.
This might mean occasionally missing a deadline by a day or two if another client has an emergency that ...
5
Well from what I can see, you are a good photographer and you have more work than you can handle. So this is a good position for expansion. The same happened to me in the programming field.
Declining a long-term client is never a good idea. Especially if a client is paying you your price and if he's a good client. So bringing another man to a team is a way ...
4
Before a project is approved, you can talk about how long the project will take to complete. You can also say: if you sign off on the project today, I can start the project on X date. Please understand that I have other projects pending approval, and if I receive approval for one of those projects first, your project start may be delayed. This usually also ...
4
Well unfortunately there isn't much you can do at this stage, most of the tactics come with good preparation.
Client hold ups are one of the biggest struggles with freelancing and is still something myself and a lot of other freelancers struggle with.
The reason clients take their time with feedback or getting content together stems from the fact that ...
4
If you are spending your time to use your creative ability to build something to their satisfaction (which you cannot easily predict), then you are absolutely in the right to make the client pay for ALL your effort.
Labs pay scientists to try different things. They have many, many failures. Same goes for engineers in emerging fields, software developers, ...
4
Fire your hourly rate.
The only way you'll ever make money with design is to become familiar with and accustomed to value-based pricing.
No client I've ever come across is willing to pay $150-$400 an hour... or willing to pay for 40 hours of work, at something ridiculous like $35/hr, when you've spent 30 hours of "rough" design exploration and only 10 ...
4
You should not feel guilty.
Sometimes work requires you to shut out the world and focus. And as a sole proprietor or single member business clients should somewhat expect that they can't always gain immediate access to you.
I often let emails sit, ignore the phone, etc. while I'm in the middle of something.
Unless you have a contract with a client that ...
4
Assuming it's only a small slump, I would look for more clients. You need food on your table, and that's your first priority.
It's good you want to work with your client, as opposed to only for yourself - but part of being a freelancer is that you go where the money is. If money isn't coming in the same, but they get the same amount of work out of you, then ...
4
There is more than one way to bill clients for creating websites. Many freelancers view it as a product, and thus charge a flat rate for what they believe the full value of their time + expertise is worth. Hourly billing for creating a new website is probably less common. I work both ways, but prefer to work under a flat rate for new websites so that both ...
4
This is something that the client has to answer, not us. It depends both on the client and the project.
For example, with one client, I was simply reporting each day what I did. That was voluntary but it helped the client know that I was doing something for the money I was charging.
With a different client, I'm working on a project on "spec" that ...
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