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After I had a similar issue, I decided to offer all clients a 10% discount for paying upfront, monthly. It has the added advantage of no notice period: if they

by crdb 10y ago

After I had a similar issue, I decided to offer all clients a 10% discount for paying upfront, monthly. It has the added advantage of no notice period: if they are fed up with our work they can just stop paying and we stop doing any more work. The amount of stress that has gone from my life was totally worth the 10% discount.

syngrog66 10y ago
I've also found a good technique is to ask for the largest amount you can, upfront. Because if they agree to it, and do it, it signals several things to me, at once: 1. they have money; 2. they have enough money that this amount won't break them; 3. they have the ability, approval & mechanism for sending me money. 4. they also believe in me and truly value me and want me and (most likely) have no plan to get free work out of me without paying on the backend. In general, the would-be clients who balk at that are either shady, or, have such small/unstable budgets that it's not the best use of my time to help them. Of course, is chance they just don't trust me. The problem is that I trust me, and I have only so many work hours in my life, and only one life to live, and I can't know for sure whether I'll ever get paid, or, how much, until and unless they truly do it. Proof is in the pudding. If I had a nickel for every would-be client who wanted the world for $800 -- or balked at that because "all they have is X" where X is ludricrously small, well, I'd have a lot of nickels. Heck that's literally all you'll get from them. Assuming they don't stiff you totally. The clients that do pay, and well, and upfront -- those are gold. Such gold I'd argue it's best to keep them secret. Very close to the vest. (If one is smart anyway.)
kobeya 10y ago
Raise your asking rate by 10%
- helloworld 10y ago
  Or maybe 11.111%, so you're back to where you started.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - 50CNT 10y ago
    Maybe he meant 10 percentage points?
brightball 10y ago
After doing freelance for a while you learn to insist on an advance. The 10% discount is a great way to incentivize the process though. Additionally, rush rates are critical. The first time I gave up a weekend with the kids for something a client "had to have by Monday" and then we monitored to see it wasn't even looked at for 3 weeks was the last. If something has to be done outside of your normal scheduling, charge a rush rate of double. When there is a cost higher than asking, it's shocking how much stuff isn't really needed by Monday.
- themodelplumber 10y ago
  Rush rates and their cousin, spectrum quotes. Good, better, and best tiers, with accompanying price and delivery time differences. This always helps me get a better read on the client. If they constantly choose the cheap and fast option, I know they are not going to be as profitable as other clients, so I know where to put my sales efforts in the future.
  - dmichulke 10y ago
    Can you tell me how spectrum quotes work? All I found was "Inspirational Quotes about Spectrum" or some consulting companies with "spectrum" in their name.
    - themodelplumber 10y ago
      Oh, that's just what I call them. Pretty sure there's another term because the principle is used all over the place, not just in freelancing. When the client asks for a quote, just try adding in one extra option from your usual. They want a WordPress site? Do some research on their business and offer, for example, one quote for a WordPress site, along with another quote for standard WordPress plus a custom mobile product library for their sales team to reference when pitching products. The client then has a choice between two really nice alternatives. You thought through their needs and they'll notice that, too. I've found that even if the client doesn't go for the extras, they'll usually say, "let's definitely talk about this when we work on our sales budget next month. I want the team to tell me what they want." Then at that time, when they give you some bullet points for desired features and ask questions about what's possible, you reply with e.g. three options, including one that is the base price you quoted originally and covers a reasonable amount of features but is just good, plus another price point that's better because it adds another really nice-to-have feature, and then the "best" price point, where every single one of their bullet points is covered and the thing is just really slick. For example, maybe it lets them edit the product prices and save them to different lists for each sales pitch. The point here is that you are getting a sense for what is important to the client. If you don't have many clients, the bullet points you got from that sales team are gold because you now know much more about their needs and can pitch more while working on the project. And finally, watch for scope changes and bill for them. There are guys with yachts that were paid for by scope changes, and in fact their businesses count on those changes in order to keep the client relationship in top shape. A scope change is easy money because the client is pitching you rather than the other way around.
drdeadringer 10y ago
A reputable lawyer I hired offers the same deal. If you paid up front, specifically in cash, 10% off precisely for the reasons you state.

by crdb 10y ago

syngrog66 10y ago

I've also found a good technique is to ask for the largest amount you can, upfront. Because if they agree to it, and do it, it signals several things to me, at once: 1. they have money; 2. they have enough money that this amount won't break them; 3. they have the ability, approval & mechanism for sending me money. 4. they also believe in me and truly value me and want me and (most likely) have no plan to get free work out of me without paying on the backend. In general, the would-be clients who balk at that are either shady, or, have such small/unstable budgets that it's not the best use of my time to help them. Of course, is chance they just don't trust me. The problem is that I trust me, and I have only so many work hours in my life, and only one life to live, and I can't know for sure whether I'll ever get paid, or, how much, until and unless they truly do it. Proof is in the pudding. If I had a nickel for every would-be client who wanted the world for $800 -- or balked at that because "all they have is X" where X is ludricrously small, well, I'd have a lot of nickels. Heck that's literally all you'll get from them. Assuming they don't stiff you totally. The clients that do pay, and well, and upfront -- those are gold. Such gold I'd argue it's best to keep them secret. Very close to the vest. (If one is smart anyway.)

kobeya 10y ago

Raise your asking rate by 10%

helloworld 10y ago
Or maybe 11.111%, so you're back to where you started.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- 50CNT 10y ago
  Maybe he meant 10 percentage points?

brightball 10y ago

After doing freelance for a while you learn to insist on an advance. The 10% discount is a great way to incentivize the process though. Additionally, rush rates are critical. The first time I gave up a weekend with the kids for something a client "had to have by Monday" and then we monitored to see it wasn't even looked at for 3 weeks was the last. If something has to be done outside of your normal scheduling, charge a rush rate of double. When there is a cost higher than asking, it's shocking how much stuff isn't really needed by Monday.

themodelplumber 10y ago
Rush rates and their cousin, spectrum quotes. Good, better, and best tiers, with accompanying price and delivery time differences. This always helps me get a better read on the client. If they constantly choose the cheap and fast option, I know they are not going to be as profitable as other clients, so I know where to put my sales efforts in the future.
- dmichulke 10y ago
  Can you tell me how spectrum quotes work? All I found was "Inspirational Quotes about Spectrum" or some consulting companies with "spectrum" in their name.
  - themodelplumber 10y ago
    Oh, that's just what I call them. Pretty sure there's another term because the principle is used all over the place, not just in freelancing. When the client asks for a quote, just try adding in one extra option from your usual. They want a WordPress site? Do some research on their business and offer, for example, one quote for a WordPress site, along with another quote for standard WordPress plus a custom mobile product library for their sales team to reference when pitching products. The client then has a choice between two really nice alternatives. You thought through their needs and they'll notice that, too. I've found that even if the client doesn't go for the extras, they'll usually say, "let's definitely talk about this when we work on our sales budget next month. I want the team to tell me what they want." Then at that time, when they give you some bullet points for desired features and ask questions about what's possible, you reply with e.g. three options, including one that is the base price you quoted originally and covers a reasonable amount of features but is just good, plus another price point that's better because it adds another really nice-to-have feature, and then the "best" price point, where every single one of their bullet points is covered and the thing is just really slick. For example, maybe it lets them edit the product prices and save them to different lists for each sales pitch. The point here is that you are getting a sense for what is important to the client. If you don't have many clients, the bullet points you got from that sales team are gold because you now know much more about their needs and can pitch more while working on the project. And finally, watch for scope changes and bill for them. There are guys with yachts that were paid for by scope changes, and in fact their businesses count on those changes in order to keep the client relationship in top shape. A scope change is easy money because the client is pitching you rather than the other way around.

drdeadringer 10y ago

A reputable lawyer I hired offers the same deal. If you paid up front, specifically in cash, 10% off precisely for the reasons you state.