5 Mistakes That Made Me A Better Freelancer
June 9th, 2008
Doing Business, The Internet, Web Design
My clients shared the same technical background: they had no idea how the Internet works, how websites work and what exactly it is I did. As far as they were concerned I waved my magical wand and poof, a site is born. Wouldn’t that be nice? Unfortunately that isn’t how it’s done (well for me at least). Because of my inexperience, I set myself up for a few nasty headaches. But I also learned a lot of valuable lessons.
The Never-Ending Design
“Hi Kevin, you know i see where that link is and well, can you make it blue instead of black?” Sounds innocent enough right? When you have a backseat designer who is continually revising the design, it can be a little frustrating. Especially when they liked your markups, then had a change of heart after you already coded everything. Getting calls a dozen times a day is also pretty tiring. You’d think your client would have the common sense to not call this often. Think again. When you don’t set guidelines and establish a clear work-flow, you’re just asking for trouble. Have your client sign off on the final mockup before moving to the next step. Define how you want to go back and forth regarding revisions.
The Midnight Caller
“How’s development going on the site? What? Of course I’m awake why wouldn’t I be? You were sleeping?” We don’t all keep the same schedule, and this is especially true if you’re dealing with someone that lives in another part of the world. Then again even when my clients lived 10 minutes away I was still getting calls at the strangest hours. Your client is paying you to get something done, and if you don’t state otherwise, expect them to need to talk to you at the most inconvenient times. If you give out your contact info, make sure you explicitly state how to contact you, and what time(s) are acceptable.
The Chatty Sally
“Hi Kevin, how are you doing? How’s the weather? Are you wearing shorts? I called to ask a quick question about the site and I’ll keep you on the phone for a while talking about general stuff not relating to the project at all” Having a good relationship with your client is important, but remember to keep it professional. Your working on their website, not becoming their new best friend. Socializing with a client isn’t bad, but it can become an issue if you don’t set clear ground rules. When you’re socializing, you’re either not working or at the least, distracted. If you have a time-sensitive project this can become a major issue. Make sure you clearly establish the purpose of your communications, and keep them on track. I’m not suggesting that clients and developers should avoid a social and professional relationship. I’m saying if you don’t set some ground rules it can get out of hand.
The Project that Doesn’t End
“The site looks great, but can you add an image gallery to it? I forgot that I wanted that before” Clients are notorious for wanting more work done than originally anticipated. I can’t remember a single project where the client didn’t want something new added as the project came to a conclusion. It’s natural - if something rattles around in your brain it’ll eventually spit out some new ideas. Since I agreed to make the client a website, I guess I agreed to add whatever they wanted right? Wrong. I failed to outline a specific scope, and as a result got stuck in a loop of additional work. Clearly define the scope of the project and what requirements need to be satisfied to complete the project. If they want to add more work after the fact, simply tell them that it’s not in the contract. Offer them the option of revising the project with added labor and a later completion date.
Hosting Woes
“Help the site is down!!! You suck at hosting!!!” I used to host my clients and charge them a few bucks for it. I figured hey why drive business elsewhere when I can offer a complete solution? Well that worked out well until my host started flaking. The site would be down once every week or so, and the people who I hosted weren’t too happy with it. I couldn’t blame them. I was angry at my host too. I’d constantly get calls about the site being down, call my host, and either get a machine or no answer at all. Now the obvious problem here is that my host sucked, but for a few dollars a month I was also being held responsible for something not in my control. I decided the profit wasn’t worth my reputation. I did explain that the hosting problems were beyond my control, but that didn’t make their site magically work. If you host your clients make sure you’re ready to accept the responsibility when something goes wrong. I do think hosts, for the most part, are more reliable now than 3 years ago. They are also cheaper now too. I refer my clients to the web host I use. I think it’s mutually beneficial that my clients deal with their host directly.
I never completed a project for a client without doing everything I could to completely satisfy them, but I sure did have some tough situations. Most of my work comes from word of mouth, so I place a lot of value on each individual client I have. These aren’t all my adverse situations, but they are my most memorable. Do you have any of your own? I’d love to read about them.
Oh, and not every single client can be satisfied - some people are just unhappy. There are other ways of dealing with them 
June 9th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Hi,
I find your article very interesting……One month ago I received a request to develop a web site and now I have other persons that ask me to realize otehr web projects. in the future I’ll remember these advices……
Now I have a question??????
My client has confusions ideas about content site, What do I do??? now I’m stopping because he doesn’t know what put in the site…..
If you help me, I’ll thanks….
June 9th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
To add to your hosting comments, not only is it beyond your control, but the margins are extremely paper thin. And for these ultra paper thin margins,you’re now on-call 24/7 (if the site goes down you get called, no matter what day or time it is).
In addition to that, because so many hosting companies are running in the negative, just trying to charge a fair price for hosting is almost impossible. I tried my hand at hosting some years back, and it’s brutally hard to compete against $3-5/month hosting.
Of course most people think that cheap hosting never goes down, so when it does they’re all surprised. And when they don’t get called back they’re in an uproar. You get what you paid for.
Yet most of these same people still won’t pay a reasonable amount and continue to expect full support and full uptime. They don’t realize that it’s impossible at $5/month. The money just isn’t there…
June 9th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
@Alessio - I sent you an email
@Stephane - Thanks for your comment - I completely agree. Being on call 24/7 for a person who wants to pay next to nothing for hosting is far from productive. I’ll never get into that mess again.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Yeah - if you want to give them hosting - use an affiliate link for Bluehost or Dreamhost or someone. I think Bluehost gives $65 per signup - much more than you can make in a year with cheap hosting for your clients.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
[...] Kevin boss writes this and it is an insightful experience which our small firm itself has gone through and learnt in the process. Link to Kevin Boss’s wonderful article [...]
June 9th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
This article is so true. I work as a contract programmer doing offshore work and I fully identify with most of the points you mentioned. I even made my own set of DOs and DONTs for independent developers , a couple of years back. (http://truelogic.org/wordpress/?p=5) .
Writing code for a living is one of the hardest professions known to man and to be able to survive in the hardest profession shows a person of calibre.
Keep it going, Kevin
Amit
June 11th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Hi Kevin,
I immediately identified with every point you made on your list. I’ve dealt with all of these clients at one time or another (sometimes with more than one issue rolled into the same client).
One way I’ve found to combat these issues is pricing. By dealing in volume at a lower price, you end up facing more of these situations than you would by finding fewer clients and charging them more.
With a higher price structure you can be choosier about the jobs you accept, you have more time to devote to quality, and you can build in time for some of the more common issues that come up.
How about a follow up article on how to price your web site projects? I’d like to hear your thoughts.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:07 am
[...] 5 Mistakes That Made Me A Better Freelancer [...]
June 12th, 2008 at 11:06 am
[...] 5 Mistakes That Made Me A Better Freelancer [...]
June 12th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
One of the most important things I learned was to charge more. Much more. I was just starting out so I charged very little, but the people who want to pay the least tend to demand the most. I had one client from hell who wanted the world and I had to nag him for six months to get paid the little I had charged. What you need to do is set milestones, and get paid on completion of each milestone before moving onto the next stage. And charging extra gets you better clients. I’m not talking about only serving the rich, just the not-stingy. All my clients after that toxic one have handed the whole project over to me, trusted my advice, and have wanted extremely few revisions. Miraculous. I also agree with being a hosting company’s affiliate, as I am with Bluehost. Personally, I’m moving away from offering services and I’m creating products instead.
June 12th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
PS. Where did you get that fantastic graphic?
June 12th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
[...] Kevin Boss wrote an article about what he learned from his early stages of being a freelance web designer. Thanks to him for including the Ashes of Problem Clients jar in his post. [...]
June 13th, 2008 at 7:34 am
@ Trisha - I definitely can relate to getting different clients by offering different prices.
A random Amazon search
June 13th, 2008 at 9:45 am
I’ve dealt with each one to some extent - all but the hosting issues. I currently use a reseller account through totalchoicehosting.com. I think eventually I’ll go to Mosso or something, but for now TCH has really been good for me. - Eric
June 16th, 2008 at 11:09 am
It only seems important to set up guidelines and get it all in writing when things go wrong. Do yourself a favor and lay out the contract in advance, and yes, in writing. You and your customers will thank you later, even if there’s resistance to doing so in the beginning. Well begun is half won, and the other half is just showing up!
June 22nd, 2008 at 4:25 am
These all sound soooo familiar. I’ve been through all that you’ve mentioned above. And yes not to mention your simple and to the point suggestions too.
June 28th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
i’ve gone thru all these situations before, minus the hosting one. i decided LONG ago that i’d never deal with hosting specifically bc of what you stated. Plus, what happens if i go on vacation and someone’s site goes down bc of hosting? i don’t want to be making long distance calls from Tahiti bc my host company sucks. So instead, i recommend 2 companies when i begin a project, give the client links to their websites, and let them make the decision and setup. that way, i can help if i’m able, but i’m not responsible for it.
as for the neverending design, once i get approval on a design, i reiterate to the client that changing colors, navigation structure, button names, order of the buttons, images, etc after design approval will be charged at an hourly rate. and i do this via email so it’s in writing. that way, after i finish coding the site and they decide all buttons should be green, not blue, i have some recourse for redoing everything for a charge.