

Freelancers Are Not Pieces of Meat - Don't Act Like One - whather
https://grouptalent.com/blog/freelancers-are-not-pieces-of-meat

======
tptacek
_Don't compromise on price_

Yes & no. Yes, if there's one thing you learn about pricing in consulting,
it's "never ever cut rate" (you will never get a rate cut back). But the point
in this article goes on to suggest that you should never back down from your
assessment of what a project should cost, and that's going too far. Clients
have budgets; sometimes those budgets are indeed too small for you to be
productive, but other times they aren't and you should cut project scope to
fit. Telling a client to spend more than they're comfortable spending is
usually not a good strategy.

 _Don't do things for free._

No. When what a client needs is cheap and non-disruptive (and, one way to make
it non-disruptive is to push the "free" back onto your schedule, which is
coincidentally also a clean way to turn "free" into "paid" when the client
balks at how long they'll have to wait), you should go ahead and do it to
maintain the relationship. Doing favors for clients is, I promise you, cheaper
than hiring salespeople. If you have a client that can't be trusted not to
abuse favors, fire the client.

Lesson in human nature: there are few things you can do in a business
relationship that are more offensive than charging for something that your
counterparty doesn't expect to be charged for. So, one thing _never_ to do:
take an inbound request from a client, do the work with no contract, and then
send an invoice.

 _Don't let clients pay you later_

No, at least, not when you're working with companies of 100 or more people.
You can negotiate payment terms, but you should learn how to sniff out payment
processes that are nonnegotiable. Trying to convince a Fortune 500 company to
pay you in installments or, worse, withholding work based on those
installments is a recipe for disaster. It doesn't even help you; it just
creates an opportunity for the client to continually second-guess whether
they're getting value from the engagement. I expect 30 web developers to chime
in here with client horror stories. My response to all of them will be the
same: don't work as a web developer for small businesses. Also: some of your
best clients will be the worst at handling payments. Build your business so
that it can thrive even on slow payments.

Don't work for clients who can't be trusted to pay you. Real clients wouldn't
dream of skipping out on a payment; what possible upside could there be to
that? "Woopity-doo, we saved $30,000 and trashed our reputation and I got
fired! Look how smart I am!"

 _Don't be at their beck and call_

Sounds good to me. Set clear expectations. If you answer your emails at
9:00PM, clients will expect you to keep doing that. The flip side of this is
that clients are usually entitled to set the terms on which you communicate,
and if the client wants 10:00AM meetings, be prepared to roll out of bed 3
hours early to get on the call.

 _Don't part take in useless meetings_

You should stay out of internal meetings; you shouldn't be a part of the
weekly staff all-hands. But be aware that some "useless" internal meetings are
resolving communications problems between stakeholders in your project. _You_
don't get value out of those meetings, but your clients get value out of
having you there. When skip out of the meeting, you become a shadowy figure or
a weird black box that people resent and blame for communications issues. You
can blame the client for being irrational about this (and subsequently lose
the client), or, just get on the phone for the meeting.

 _Don't write lengthy proposals_

And lose engagements to the consultancies that will.

 _Don't wait until client asks for an update_

Yep. Daily status mail. I wish I could make myself do this reliably, because
it's helped every time I've done it.

 _Stop caring about only the money_

I didn't understand this point.

 _Don't do everything clients asks_

This strikes me as a dumb reason to get fired by a client.

~~~
maratd
> Doing favors for clients is, I promise you, cheaper than hiring salespeople.
> If you have a client that can't be trusted not to abuse favors, fire the
> client.

You're absolutely right, but I want to put it another way. I actively price in
"one extra thing" for every project. This way, when a client asks for an extra
tweak there or a small extra feature there, I don't feel bad because I already
priced that in and the client feels good because they think they're getting a
bonus freebie.

Virtually ever client asks for a little extra and since I already priced it
in, I have no qualms with providing it. Everybody walks away happy.

------
steverb
Wait. There are people who don't bill for meetings?

I understand not charging for the initial meeting where we figure out if we're
going to be able to work together, but after that if I'm in a meeting with the
customer then it's billable.

That's part of the reason for charging by the hour. An hour of my time is
worth X dollars, if the customer wants to pay that so that I can listen to he
and his business partner argue about spending money to get more whiteboards in
the meeting room (true story) then that's their choice.

~~~
jacquesm
I don't charge every billable hour. This costs me a couple of hours every now
and then but it gets me tons of goodwill back because I'm not the guy that
bills for every little tidbit. This translates into customers not being shy
about calling me, which in turn translates (more often than not) into
business, either direct or by referral. I've made the conscious choice to let
the longer term be more important than the shorter term. The near term cost is
<< 5%, the long term gains have been immense.

Typical things I don't count as billable:

\- short phone calls

\- meetings that can lead to substantial business

\- referrals

\- introductions / finding employees

Not always, not with everybody, but more often than not those come at 0 charge
and it cements the relationship. If all someone wants from me is an
introduction or a referral then they will most likely find a closed door, but
for existing customers I really could not justify putting a price on every
interaction. Note that this works for me, it could very well not work for you.

~~~
orangethirty
I do the same and the goodwill generated more than pays for any money made on
billing for _everything_. I also go as far as sending new business towards my
client's way. They see me as a part of their team, rather than an outsider.
Plus I enjoy helping others succeed.

~~~
jrs235
Do either of you minimally make note of the time you spent on an invoice and
mark it as No Charge or skip that altogether too?

I wonder what method results in better good will? I would guess not putting it
on the invoice since putting it on the invoice a) moves the social aspect/norm
to a market norm/aspect and b) shows you track time and are knowingly and
willing to give some away for FREE (which I would assume might lead to a
client abusing it later or questioning why or pointing out that you didn't
charge for X or for that one time but now you are charging me this time or for
similar thing Y and then having to explain yourself.

~~~
sherm8n
I only work with clients that know what my value is. They never have a problem
paying me to make their business a lot more money. In fact they love paying me
for that because I'm very business goal oriented. I am obsessed with making
businesses money.

These clients would never want me to do something for free. They always want
to compensate me appropriately. It works our great for everyone.

~~~
jacquesm
What is your hourly rate?

~~~
sherm8n
I don't do hourly rates because I don't like trading time for money. I trade
value added to the business for money though.

------
ghc
As someone who has, at one time or another, failed at some or all of these
points, I wish I'd seen this before I started out.

It's tempting to devalue yourself when you're new to freelancing or consulting
in order to get business. But I'd take it all back and do it the right way
after what I've seen.

The first time you make a serious mistake or don't get paid because you didn't
ask for payment up front, you learn the hard way that business is, in fact,
brutal and you don't get anywhere by being accommodating or nice; you can only
go far by being professional and proactive.

~~~
yen223
I'd like to know: without selling yourself cheap, what's the way to get that
first client?

~~~
ghc
It's not easy, even if you sell yourself cheap. It can be done, however. I
never asked for references or kept a portfolio of my past work.

To get that first client:

1\. Advertise and be picky about where. There are lists of freelancers who are
specialized in certain kinds of work. Put yourself on them. You will get
desperate people who can't find anyone to take on their job. Some of these
jobs will be pretty bad. DO NOT take them, even as a way to build your
portfolio. I learned this the hard way. You may think you are superhuman, but
burnout is your enemy. Forget oDesk or similar. For example, if you know
Django, put yourself into Django people. I got lots of clients that way when I
first started out.

2\. Use your connections, and build more connections. While I would never sell
to friends and family, you can find clients through them. When I was a
teenager I started a successful custom PC business this way. You never know
who your acquaintances might know and what problems they might have that you
can solve.

3\. Deny everything. Do not act like you are new. You have to have confidence
in being enough of an expert to do the job for anyone to take you seriously.
Be the kind of person who doesn't need to give references to get a client.
References have only rarely come up for me because I would always demonstrate
a firm grasp of what the problem that needed to be solved was and I could
offer a careful plan of attack.

4\. Sell yourself. I don't mean by blogging or having a website. When you talk
to client over the phone or meet them in person, you need to sell yourself as
a competent worker. If you've worked on projects that have something to do
with the project a client is proposing, say so. You don't need to add
qualifiers about it being a hobby project or open source contribution. If you
can solve your client's problem your job is to make sure you make them believe
that you're the person to do it. Everything else is just details.

5\. Avoid LinkedIn. This was easier when I started...it might be harder now.
Connecting with potential clients on LinkedIn could expose you as
inexperienced (or help if you have lots of corporate experience). Take on
small enough projects to start that this doesn't come up. This almost always
means your first clients will be small businesses.

6\. Repeat to yourself before meeting with a client: "This person will judge
me based on our interaction. They will only know my experience level based on
this. I am only inexperienced if I lead them to believe it."

------
josh2600
I like this series of blog posts, and I really dig original artwork.

That being said, I find the formatting of this post a bit offputting. To my
mind, the header usage clashes with the topic sentence accent (bolding) and I
feel like I have trouble focusing on the sentiments.

Good content though; these points apply to all consulting positions, not just
developers, although that's certainly the target audience on HN. I note that
this piece also doesn't mention what GroupTalent does, which I think is a
subtle but effective way of being "above the fray".

Good work again guys.

~~~
sherm8n
From a content marketing perspective, I don't think they should sell their own
product on their own blog too much. Constantly providing valuable content in
the freelancing domain will help build more trust with potential customers in
the long run.

They do have a small pitch at the end of the blog post about GroupTalent.
There's also more call-to-actions on the right column. It's about the right
amount mentions.

------
bluetidepro
I do like this is a great post, don't get me wrong, but does anyone else feel
that the points " _Stop caring about only the money._ " and " _Don't let
clients pay you later._ " directly contradict themselves? How is it possible
to "* Demand payment before you begin any work*" without seeming like you only
care about the money?

And while I already know the answers to my questions, because they are meant
to be more rhetorical, they may try rephrasing those points for that seemingly
direct contradiction.

~~~
alanctgardner2
> Stop caring about ONLY the money

It doesn't say you can't like money, or consider it. They just mean take pride
in your work, and love what you do.

If you already know the answer, is it worth writing a comment about? They
phrased the headings fine, you read them wrong.

~~~
bluetidepro
> _They phrased the headings fine, you read them wrong._

Fair enough, that may have been the case. I guess I just took it differently.

