Freelance Jobs

When you start freelancing, you had dreams of making lots of money, but also having lots of time too. However now that you are actually freelancing, you soon see the reality is quite different. When you’re just starting out, it seems like you’ll do anything to get clients. After all, if you have a lot of clients then it stands to reason that you’ll make a lot of money. However, there are 10 mistakes that new freelancers make that could actually kill their business, in some cases before it even starts. This article will take a look at the 10 mistakes that freelancers new to the business commonly make that could cost them their business.

Mistake 1. Doing a mock up before any contract is agreed upon

At first glance, doing a mockup seems harmless enough. After all, people do want to see what they’re getting and asking for full payment upfront seems sort of ‘harsh’, especially if you’re just starting out. While you will find lots of well-meaning advice online about how doing a mockup can make them really ‘want it’ this can backfire in so many ways.

The most common problem is that once the client sees your mockup, they can just farm it out to someone cheaper now that they know what it looks like. Another problem is that they’re not sure they really want this kind of service in the first place. Sometimes people say ‘sure, show me a mockup ‘just because they don’t know how to say no or because they’re curious to see what one looks like. You should never do any kind of mockup before you get at least a down payment. You want to make sure that your client is committed not only to the project, but also to using you.

Mistake 2.  Paying for performance

Many times clients, particularly clients who are new to the industry, want you to be paid based on how well the site does.  While the client calls it pay for performance, it’s actually not as simple as that. SEO gurus, Website designers and writers are particularly vulnerable to this particular type of mistake. Simply put, the client says they want to see how well they place or how well their book/site does before they pay you.

In reality, this ‘performance’ has nothing to do with you. In SEO, in a highly competitive market, you can do everything right and still not end up on the first spot of Google.  Similarly, a writer can write a great book or a web designer can create a great site and have no sales due to a lack of marketing on the client’s part. So that means your product is not living up to its full potential and that it’s not your fault. Payment is due because of the work being done, not because of impossible to control ‘performance’ standards.

Mistake 3. Going partners with someone on an idea

Similar to ‘pay-for-performance’, is going partners with someone. This is when someone wants you to do a lot of work for them. In exchange for actual money, they will give you a percentage of the business. When a freelancer is new, they will sometimes agree to this.

However, this has the same pitfalls as paying for performance. Everyone thinks they have a great idea. They’re going to be the next eBay, Amazon or YouTube. However it rarely works out that way. Even someone with the best of intentions can fail due to a lack of planning, a lack of knowledge, and a lack of resources. That means you just did a lot of work for absolutely no money. The best advice here is to never partner with someone, unless you know them well enough to know they’ll succeed. Otherwise, no matter how good the idea, make sure they pay you.

Mistake 4. Cloning someone else’s site

Web designers are particularly vulnerable to this mistake. Most often, people come to them and say they want an ‘exact copy’ of this other site they don’t own. Clients who want you to flat out copy someone else’s site should be avoided for two reasons. For starters ‘code theft’ is morally and legally wrong so it may get you in legal trouble.

More importantly than that however is the fact that this person who asked you to copy a site has questionable ethics. If they don’t think anything about stealing someone else’s work, they won’t think twice about turning on you as well. Someone with questionable moral values can be your best friend today and your worst enemy tomorrow. It’s best to avoid people like this, especially since you can’t use a cloned site in a portfolio.

Mistake 5. Discounting your price

It never fails, when a product or service does not sell the first thing a new business owner wants to do is lower the price. This is especially true if you don’t have a client at the moment and your potential new client asks you to lower the price or asks you ‘what’s your best rate?’. Usually freelancers justify the low price by saying they’re getting their foot in the door.

However, there’s an old offline saying that says if you’re losing a penny on every sale, you can’t make it up in volume. If you start discounting your prices, then the only clients you will attract will be the ones looking for discounted prices. That means not only will they go elsewhere if you raise your prices, you’ll be left with a bunch of clients that might not even pay you, or leave when a lower price comes along. Everyone knows you get what you pay for, and you get the type of client you charge for. People looking for bargains rarely make good clients.

Mistake 6. Registering and hosting your client’s site

There are tons of books online that tell freelancers that this is an easy way to make reoccurring income. On some level that is true; it is a way to make reoccurring income, but it is far from easy. Once you register and host your client’s site, they’ll think they own you. Soon they’ll start calling you for anything tech related. If the site goes down, it’s your fault. If there’s a storm outside and Internet goes down, it’s your fault.

Also, clients will call you to change ‘this thing’ or ‘that thing’ on their site and it ‘should only take a minute.’ All these ‘minutes’ add up over time which means you could be doing a lot of extra work that you’re not getting paid for.

Mistake 7. Giving out personal contact information

Giving clients your personal contact information like your Skype ID, your IM account, or your personal phone number is a mistake that people new to business make most often. At first, it seems like a good idea, you want your client to be able to reach you. However, once clients have your personal contact information, they will think you are at their beck and call. They’ll be calling you all hours of the day and night, and even on weekends because they feel they can.

Mistake 8. Getting paid when the job is done

This is another trap that people new to freelancing fall into quite constantly. The business owners are nervous that they’ll be ripped off, so they offer to pay you once the project is completed. They equate this reasoning to buying something before they see it. Sometimes new freelancers will agree to this without knowing full consequences of their actions.

Once the project is done, the client might decide that they don’t need it anymore. They might’ve gotten a quote that was cheaper. Or their business has just taken an unexpected turn and now what you’re offering is not what they need. No matter what the reason, it always has the same result; you just did a lot of work and will never see a penny.

Under ideal circumstances you should get 100% down before you begin any work. However if your client balks at this idea, then the very least you should collect is 50% up front. 50% gives you assurance that your client has bought into what you’re selling, as well as deciding they want you to do the work. In addition, it also gives you money to work with right now.

Mistake 9. Agreeing to a rush job without compensation

Sometimes, agreeing to rush job is a good idea if it gets you extra money. Too often though, new freelancers agree to do a rush job without any extra compensation because they want to show off how fast they can do it. If you offer a client a rush job without charging more, then the client starts to think that this is your normal way of operating. Soon, they’ll expect all the work they give you to be a rush job. You’ll work nights and weekends with absolutely no future compensation for doing so. It’s at that point when most freelancers give up because that’s as bad as the job they left.

Mistake 10. Promising you won’t use this work elsewhere

This one is particularly tricky, especially if you’re in web design. Business owners want to have an edge over their competitors, so they’ll often want you to sign exclusive agreement saying you only work with them. This is particularly true if you come up with something truly innovative for their site and they don’t want you sharing it with the world. In those rare cases you might have an exclusivity agreement, but if that’s not case, you should never sign one otherwise because it limits your chances for future growth.

When a person buys a website, they’re buying a ‘look’ customized to them. They are not buying the code, nor are they buying the rights to the template that the website uses. In certain cases they’re not even buying the exclusive rights to the software that the website comes with already installed. Much of this is standard and it’s important that the client knows that if they should ask. When you’re new to freelancing you have to be very careful about exclusivity contracts, because it can limit your potential.

These are the 10 mistakes most often made by freelancer new to the industry. Though freelancers typically know what they’re doing in terms of technical aspects, when it comes to dealing with business owners it can be easy to forget that some things are simply not a good idea. Before you decide to say yes to anything, think it over very carefully. Ask yourself ‘where is this decision likely to lead?’ If the answer is someplace you don’t want to end up, then simply say no. Your business will thank you.