Some freelancers break it down in three stages. Design payment Website dev payment Delivery final payment. If u complete the design part and things fall aprt u should have a non-refund fee and give them the design files. Ur time and talent is worth money.
Great advice for any business. Have a contract. Even if it is just barebones. Try to include a SOW as well (Scope of Work) even for smaller projects to indicate and agree on what will be completed and when.
The same happened with me recently, I needed money so I got the client that my teammates told me to not take. Then things got slow, and that was horrible but good learning.
Idk if contracts are the answer, if someone doesn't want to pay, a contract won't stop them. Most of the time, (in my experience), if they don't pay it's because they just don't have the money. But IMO where you went wrong was having a client ask for a discount and you obliged. I'm imagining because you need the money, which makes sense. So here's a few solutions that I've found for this problem. 1. Don't take on clients that want a deal, usually they want to pay the least and expect the most. 2. If I REALLY need the money and don't want to turn a client down, I just break down what I can do. So you said you do web-dev, I'd say okay, so I charge 1k for this. But since you can only do $500, we can cut out these things (list them) since you don't need them right now. Then I would turn this into a benefit, by saying "Okay so we can cut X, X, X things from the package, bringing the price to $500. Those extra things are important, but it doesn't sound like you need them right now. Cutting them out will get you a functional website faster and then we can build on it later." Offering a price change this way, A) doesn't devalue your service B) Gets you working together, (it's easier to upsell an existing client than find a whole new client) C) Prevents you from doing a ton of extra work 3. I always use the word "fair" when I negotiate. I will literally say to a client, does this sound "fair?" and I will mention the word often "I want to make sure everything is a fair exchange of value." I use this word a lot because it's honest PLUS it also protects me later because if I feel like I'm working for nothing, I will say to the client; "I feel like the work has become an unfair exchange of value, I'm okay with doing X for you, but this extra (list the extra stuff that takes more time) doesn't feel fair on my end." And then just see what they say. If they say no, etc, then cut the relationship. Then last but not least, just find more clients. Wasting time on a shit client, when you could have fired them and spent that free time (and free brain power) to prospect for new clients.
Some freelancers break it down in three stages.
Design payment
Website dev payment
Delivery final payment.
If u complete the design part and things fall aprt u should have a non-refund fee and give them the design files. Ur time and talent is worth money.
Great advice for any business. Have a contract. Even if it is just barebones. Try to include a SOW as well (Scope of Work) even for smaller projects to indicate and agree on what will be completed and when.
The same happened with me recently, I needed money so I got the client that my teammates told me to not take. Then things got slow, and that was horrible but good learning.
Good advice. I had my fair share too! These are the best lessons to learn so one knows how to avoid it
Business is built on failures not success!
Idk if contracts are the answer, if someone doesn't want to pay, a contract won't stop them. Most of the time, (in my experience), if they don't pay it's because they just don't have the money. But IMO where you went wrong was having a client ask for a discount and you obliged. I'm imagining because you need the money, which makes sense.
So here's a few solutions that I've found for this problem.
1. Don't take on clients that want a deal, usually they want to pay the least and expect the most.
2. If I REALLY need the money and don't want to turn a client down, I just break down what I can do. So you said you do web-dev, I'd say okay, so I charge 1k for this. But since you can only do $500, we can cut out these things (list them) since you don't need them right now.
Then I would turn this into a benefit, by saying "Okay so we can cut X, X, X things from the package, bringing the price to $500. Those extra things are important, but it doesn't sound like you need them right now. Cutting them out will get you a functional website faster and then we can build on it later."
Offering a price change this way,
A) doesn't devalue your service
B) Gets you working together, (it's easier to upsell an existing client than find a whole new client)
C) Prevents you from doing a ton of extra work
3. I always use the word "fair" when I negotiate. I will literally say to a client, does this sound "fair?" and I will mention the word often "I want to make sure everything is a fair exchange of value." I use this word a lot because it's honest PLUS it also protects me later because if I feel like I'm working for nothing, I will say to the client;
"I feel like the work has become an unfair exchange of value, I'm okay with doing X for you, but this extra (list the extra stuff that takes more time) doesn't feel fair on my end."
And then just see what they say. If they say no, etc, then cut the relationship.
Then last but not least, just find more clients.
Wasting time on a shit client, when you could have fired them and spent that free time (and free brain power) to prospect for new clients.
This is solid advice
This is what I'm most scared of in starting a dev shop, tbh.
Don’t let that discourage you. In any client facing business you’ll run into this. Just make sure to always use a contact not matter what.
I agree with @digitalliquid this is to be expected learn from it and continue