CLIENT DECIDED to “WORK with SOMEONE ELSE” AFTER I GAVE THEM a DRAFT
A graphics designer that I know once wrote myself and other freelancers the following message:
How does one deal with clients that literally “decide to work with someone else” after saying that they are ready to work with you and they even GIVE YOU DRAFTS TO MAKE and designs to work on?
So, when you message them with drafts—heck even a finalised design, they start ignoring you?
And then they message you after a day and say that “hey, love your work but I decided to work with someone else for now...”
To keep things professional, I never asked for money beforehand, I wanted to collect the payment after I had sent her the work.
I’m so disappointed and demotivated right now because the pandemic has been really tough and I’m really trying to keep my cool but clients like that really get on my nerves.
How do I stop thinking about all the effort that I put in my work? And I charged VERY reasonable rates.
My Advice...
When it comes to “drafts” and/or “samples” — one of my best practices is to NEVER work for free.
With samples, instead of giving clients exactly what they want (without paying you), you can give them an idea of what they’re looking for...
For example, if I have a content writing company and one of my prospects runs a pizzeria, and they need me to create a press release about their new gluten-free vegan menu; my sample would be another press release that I wrote for a restaurant in the past — if I’ve never worked on something that like before, I’d write up something to DEMONSTRATE that I can do the work, without ever referring to their products.
That way, they’ll still need my help.
Now, when a client starts talking to me about drafts, that’s a different ballgame!
At that point, the client has already realised that I can do the work, and we MUST have a contract in place in order for me to do the work.
Fortunately, I have already created a self-study course with a template of the sort of contract that you can send your client. This template includes terms that you can agree on. I call this contract, “the Post-Interview Proposal”...
JOIN GET PAID NOW AND LEARN HOW TO FORMAT A “POST INTERVIEW PROPOSAL”
To paraphrase that module, your Post-Interview Proposal should have a 3 to 4-sentence recap of everything that you and your client have agreed on, inter alia;
The final deliverable
How much the final deliverable costs
What’s included in the final deliverable, and finally
Your suggested milestones
As a Graphics Designer, clients should ideally be the ones offering you some kind of compensation if they want to see a “draft”, “sample”, or “preliminary design”...
This would demonstrate to you that they’re not going with another candidate and that they simply want more concrete plans, in order for them to commit to spending any more money.
If your clients don’t offer this kind of compensation, then buyer beware!
🚨Do not send them anything. 🚨
I know talking about payment is uncomfortable, but if they haven’t initiated the conversation, just send them a “Post-Interview Proposal” to show them that you’re serious and that you are not willing to send your art for free.
Another designer that I spoke to says that she usually makes sketches in meetings, but she doesn’t bring anything to the table that might make them say, “can we look over these for a few days,” because AGAIN, unless there’s a contract in-place, that statement could be a death knell.
When you have a contract, it should dictate milestones and deadlines.
Stop getting screwed over by “would-be” freelancing clients, who had ZERO intention of working with you!
Each milestone (depending on how long the project is) will have a draft delivery date and cost, as well as the date that you expect feedback by.
I give all of my clients up to two revisions on drafts, before an hourly rate kicks in! (More about that below)
Then, contingent on receiving feedback on the draft by a particular date, the final product also has an estimated completion date + cost.
My rate for a draft is 45 to 50% and then 50 to 55% for the completed work after feedback.
I tend to opt into a bonafide 45-55 agreement if the client is asking me to do something that I have either never done before, or haven’t done in a while; however, I usually ask for 50-50 (50% payment for draft and 50% payment for final product) and admin fees are factored into every single payment, so that I don’t end up eating the cost for my clients.
After delivering a draft, if the client and I go back and forth on the draft more than twice, that means the scope of the work wasn’t clear…
To prevent us from having to have an uncomfortable discussion about compensation for edits retrospectively, I include a disclaimer within the Post-Interview Proposal. This disclaimer lets the client know that the project will be subject to an hourly rate (starting at $_ per hour) when the draft requires more than two revisions.
Once the hourly rate kicks in (meaning, you and the client have gone back and forth over the draft more than twice), you can send them a request for an hourly contract on Upwork, or if you’re not using the platform anymore, you can still use an app like clockify.me [it’s free] to track the time and then bill the client...
At the end of the day—whether you’re an architect, consultant, coach, writer, or designer— your client needs to have skin in the game, or they’ll just go around Frankensteining “drafts” from others without ever paying for the work.
Finally, if you find yourself in a position where a client has taken work from you, without paying you — and can’t stop thinking about this loss— you need to join the PAID SQUAD and learn the remedies, expeditiously!
