Freelance Web & Graphic Designers: Your Work Doctrine

[SmashinYoungMan]

I thought it might be a good idea to share how you approach your work with others, and see how others do the same. I'll start.

1. I never bid on projects. I'm pretty sure I know what my work is worth, and have no interest into getting into a bidding war on a project. I don't barter on the price either. I'm fairly fortunate that, at this time, I have enough work to keep me busy, so I can afford to turn down work.

That said, I will work for a lower-than-usual price at those times when I have no clients in the offing, or if the project is one that holds particular interest for me, such as working on a website whose subject I find especially appealing.

2. I don't deal with potential clients who say, "This should be easy" or something along those lines. Variations on the above theme are, "My friend says it should cost this much" or "It shouldn't take more than a few minutes".

If a person knows enough about what they want done that they can give an educated guess on how long it should take, or how much it should cost, then they should just do it themselves. Nine times out of ten, they're just trying to get off as cheaply as they can by spouting bullcrap.

3. I don't take any money upfront when I start work on a project that is less than 300 dollars. I do, however, always require payment be made in full before delivering the code/skin/whatever. I offer enough screenshots and often live demos of the work all throughout its progress that the client knows I've put the time in and what they're getting, so payment can be made knowing they'll receive what they're paying for.

For projects over 300 dollars, I require some sort of negotiable good faith payment be made upfront. Time is money, as they say, and I want to be reasonably sure that the client isn't going to back out on me after putting in days of work.

4. I provide post-installation support, but only within reason. I'll happily support the work I've done after it is installed on the client's site should any issues arise, or they want some minor tweaks done. This is as it should be. Some clients, however, seem to think paying for a one-off project is the same as paying a permanent retainer fee; meaning they expect me to be at their beck and call for things even outside of the work I've done, or believe I should make major changes to the work I have done weeks or even months later at no cost.

That said, I have a few regular clients with whom I have a great relationship, and occasionally do the odd job for free if it isn't too large. It's definitely not something I make a habit of doing, however.

That's about all I have time to get into now. Feel free to share your approach to work.

[CAMS]

all exactly the way i do things


altho dont take deposits on anything normaly, unless i know its going to take a long time and cant risk the client backing out and me being out of pocket due to the time used on the project.