Being Professional: Getting Upset, But Learning To Know When To Walk Away.
The beginning XYZ contacted me about doing a website for them. They, having seen my own business website, thought that my abilities to produce a quality product was worth their investment dollars, and that I could bring a lot of value to the face of their company. They even wanted me, initially, to be the voice and potentially face of their company videos. It was “that client” that you normally wait a while to see, because it’s a total package: They want a website, they want my video skills, and they want my voiceover. If you’ve ever been to Pryor Media – you know that’s the three services I offer – and they wanted everything. Perfect. Much of my discussions with XYZ in the early stages of our communication led to some serious revolutions about how I was doing my business, and how to I could potentially do better for myself by changing a few things. Some of the advice I received within our initial talk via Skype, which lasted over 3 hours total, I actually implemented into my business. Things like removing the free trial, and offering a money-back guarantee instead. Things like charging what I was actually worth. Allowing myself to bring more value to clients with faster response times because of the increased resources I’d have to dedicate to them. I thought this was great advice throughout the initial talk, since XYZ was the type of company that should be a creditable source in these sorts of things. At least, they presented themselves as such. I look all around the web and have yet to find a real solid example of their success with a client, but I simply figured that this was because their success would ultimately be invisible to people in the public anyways. We spoke a while, and then agreed on a rate. The rate was actually “very cheap” according to XYZ, which told me they would have started the price at 3 times that amount if they were doing it. They recommended I raise my rates, because I’m worth it… just, apparently, not to them (I was to keep the proposed rate the same for them though). Not a big deal. It made sense really; after all – I proposed the rate. They agreed. That’s business.
Miscommunication from the start
It’s so vitally important to communicate with with your clients, and likewise for clients, it’s vitally important that you communicate with your freelancers. XYZ had an initial deposit that was the equivalent of 7 hours of work. The task was to have things migrated from their old site to their new site. Their old site wasn’t on the CMS I needed to set up for them, so there was more work in it than usual. It’s not exactly a “export and then import” scenario. The agreement for this deposit was specifically stated as the costs of getting their new website set up within WordPress, and all of their old data transferred over – with graphics. Then, once that was complete, more work would begin. Throughout this process, and during the working processes for every client I work for, I submit a time sheet. The time sheet is freely available for each client to view 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The timesheet is shared with the client, and is updated immediately whenever work stops, and starts. [caption id="attachment_4310" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
I guess if you learned something your time was not wasted. Well, sorta. Good luck next time!
"Get Things in Writing"
This is a huge lesson that I've learned myself this last year. I took a deal I made with a client through emails in good faith because the producer had an entire payment plan laid out and I was meeting with the director of the project frequently, though he wasn't the one with the money, it was the producer.
After I had finished the product, I handed it over and continued to receive payments for another month. But before even half of their balance was paid, I stopped receiving payments all together… I had fulfilled my task, but still haven't received full payment for it to this day.
It has been a nightmare, as the $3K that I'm still owed was to be invested in new equipment so I could take on more advanced work.
But because it was only a gentleman's agreement and nothing was signed I don't have anything I can do but regularly ask when I can expect to paid what I am owed.
My difficult lesson? "Unless you hold a contract specifying otherwise, do not hand over the final materials until you have received full payment… Get it in writing."