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Topic: Freelance fees
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| anonymousdesigner | Posted – 6/12/2009 2:53:21 PM | show profile | email poster | flag this post OK, I'm an unemployed graphic designer/photographer doing freelance work to pay the bills until I land a full time permanent gig. I have been working with a client for about 4 months, photographing her line of jewelry, editing the photos, digitally redesigning pieces to her specifications ("can we add a chain to this, make this pendant copper instead of gold, take the gold ring on this piece and put it on that piece?"...you get the idea) putting together individual line sheets and multi page PDFs with Wholesale, retail and no pricing...from home using my own equipment. I charged her a flat fee for the whole job initially but she came back to me a few weeks later and wanted new sheets with the line grouped differently, prices changed, descriptive text added (she did not provide the text) and 6 new pieces added. This was when the digital redesigns of some pieces began. I told her the cost would be $25 per original sheet, $10 for the sheets with different pricing and the multi page PDFs and $25 per hour for the photography and photoshop work. My question to you all is, given my location (Los Angeles) and the 8 years experience I have as a designer, was this an unreasonably high price to charge? She is dragging her feet about paying me the last $360. I have explained again and again about the time I spent on this, not charging her for the endless revisions to the sheets, even giving her a 20% discount but she still complains. How do you all handle this situation? I'm sure this is not an uncommon attitude from freelance clients. What do you all do with a client like this? (thank you for reading this VERY long post) |
| affluent-shmaffluent | Posted – 6/13/2009 12:59:25 AM | show profile | email poster | flag this post solution--be professional and work with porfessionals Stop providing additional work without being paid for your past work. You have nothing to lose at this point, but the time you could be working on a paying gig. Early in my career I worked on 'the honor system'. Bad business. Freelancers are paid for their time and hence your fee is based on the time it will take to complete the project. After you get the job and have the conversation about what is to happen and when---tell the potential client you will write up a contract to be signed about what you have agreed upon as the assignment, the fee schedule and the projected time frame. This is the first step in separating the pros from 'the cons'! If the guy is a scammer, he won't like this idea, at all. WALK AWAY NOW! All professional freelance assignments are to be agreed upon in writing with a simple, clear contract of what is expected from both parties---before any work begins. The contract should include the job (in detail), fee (1/3 upfront/1/3 at half way point, 1/3 upon completion), timeframe for this work and pay schedule. To avoid the never ending job include your hourly/day/weekly rate-- if the project extends passed the agreed upon deadline. HINT: any client who can not pay you 1/3 to start a job will not pay you at all. Politely walk away from this unprofessional. Live and learn. Best of luck to you! |
| Lula | Posted – 6/13/2009 2:35:04 PM | show profile | flag this post $25/hour is low for 8 years' experience in a major metropolitan area, even for straight production work. You're letting her take advantage of you. To answer your last question: What do you all do with a client like this? 1. Put the brakes on the runaway train. Email her to set up a phone or in-person meeting to assess the current status of the project, discuss accounting issues, and map out a completion plan. At that meeting, be firm, matter-of-fact, and exceedingly professional (no defensive comments, no accusatory comments, no justifications). Since you've already established out-of-scope costs with her (again, far too low, which is why she doesn't value the work you're doing), you can't do much there. Explain to her that you'd be happy to continue the revisions according to the prices you quoted, but given the outstanding balance that work will have to come once the account is brought up to date. Use detached language like that (as opposed to, say, "I'm not doing any more work until you've paid me"), so she's less likely to get defensive. Assuming she agrees, transition the conversation into establishing a new workflow (and you can say just that - "Since this project clearly requires multiple revisions, I'd like to implement a tighter workflow to ensure nothing slips through the cracks and we keep the project moving forward without unnecessary delays."). Your new workflow should include that any revision requests come in writing. You should also submit a simple approval form with clear language that she must sign and return before moving into the next stage of work/revision. And work she then signs off on can get billed as you go. I would also recommend explaining to her that you will be now be invoicing for all approved work (work she's signed off on) every two weeks. This will ensure that you don't get stuck with a huge outstanding balance again. If she balks (she will), explain that this is your standard policy for all accounts with late payment history, and that once three consecutive invoices are paid in full on time, then you'd be happy to go to monthly billing. 2. Ensure this never happens again (even though it will). Do that by raising your rates so cheap clients don't expect you to work for peanuts. Also make sure you have all clients sign a contract prior to beginning work, and spell out in that contract what the scope of the project is (I often spell out final deliverables with a set number of revision rounds), what the charges are for out-of-scope requests, what the approval process is, and any other client obligations. Also, I have clients sign a change order when making out-of-scope requests - they have to sign an approval of the new costs. Good luck - freelancing is tough, esp. when you're working with low-balling clients. Check out AIGA for more advice: http://cpm.aiga.org/ |
| anonymousdesigner | Posted – 6/19/2009 8:55:24 PM | show profile | email poster | flag this post Thank you! Thank you for the invaluable advice and reminding me that I am a highly skilled professional deserving of respect (difficult to remember sometimes when you're unemployed) Said client has paid me and even recommended me to another potential client. He's balking at my rates and terms so far but I'm not giving in this time! At least I'll have my dignity intact. Thanks again! |
