A Quick PSA About Freelancing
As some of you may know, I do a lot of freelance Graphic Design, and am trying to work in animation as well. I get a lot of crazy clients, but for every crazy one I have 5 amazing ones.
For the past two weeks I have had a client who has made my life miserable. Because of her potential connections I went way above and beyond to help her meet a deadline, that she did not tell me about when we agreed on a contract. In fact, her contract says that there is no deadline and that I am not responsible for helping her meet one. Going that extra distance has been a huge mistake.
She approved her file last week saying how everything is perfect and that she is planning on hiring me for her next book. She has since called me late at night and emailed me several times because she has changed her mind and that she needs everything to be done immediately because she still has her deadline. I told her that our contract has been fulfilled and that I would need to charge her more and if she needs it rushed I will need to charge extra for that as well. She balked at this and demanded I work for free. Each time she contacts me, I give her the same answer.
She has also tried different tactics and admitted to trying to manipulate me into dropping everything and doing extra work for free.
She called and told me how perfect my work is to try and butter me up, but when I said I wasn’t available she played the angry customer so that I would feel compelled to make her happy again by giving her her way. When I asked why the sudden change of tune, she responded that she was trying to play my emotions to get me to do the extra and rushed work for free.
She later called me and said that she would like me to do another task, but that there was no rush on it. I said I would send her the new file in a couple of days and this was the cost. She responded by telling me that even though she had told me no rush she really needed it within the hour. She had only said no rush to seem respectful of my time, assuming that I would drop everything to assist her to be nice.
She has threatened to put bad reviews online and telling everyone how unprofessional I am because I won’t push back my many other clients an do her work now, for free. I have an excellent reputation online and am often known for being professional and accommodating as well as reasonable and speedy. Also, I feel that at this point in time, that my portfolio also speaks volumes for the quality of my work.
She has since broken her file in an attempt to change things herself, which is against our contract and now it needs to be completely redone as opposed to just tweaked. I still have the unbroken file. She went in and deleted functions and formatting and now her file doesn’t function properly. She is claiming that even though I had told her how to use her file and that she knowingly did things I told her not to do, that it is now my fault her file is broken.
I am holding firm in that she will either have to wait until I have time or pay me for the extra work and an added fee for the rush. She has demanded I work through the night. I have given her options on timing and how much the work will cost depending on her chosen timeline. She has decided to go elsewhere because she feels “entitled to have this done for free”.
Reasons I am telling everyone about this.
This lady is straight up driving me insane, and it’s nice to vent.
Plus, everyone loves the schadenfreude of hearing other people’s experiences with the insane.
I have things set in my contracts and in how I work that helped me in this case and this serves as a great example why I do.
There are lessons in this that I’ve learned that will also change how I do business in the future and are worth sharing.
Always work with a contract. I mean, don’t trust anyone. Not even family or friends. Some of my best friends in the world have tried to screw me over. A contract helps to set up boundaries and have them treat you more seriously instead of expecting a friend to do a favor. Also, contracts protect you and your interests in sticky situations like the one I have been going through this week.
Make sure your contract has a detailed scope of work. I usually work and charge per task instead of by time. I set up in my scope a limit on the rounds of revisions. This forces the client to make decisions and be more concise in their feedback. If they know they don’t have to pay to see more options they are less likely to be wishy washy. It’s like free samples. If you tell people they can only have three and then after that they have to pay, then they’ll only take three. But if you don’t put a limit they’ll eat the whole tray.
Have your contract address the important stuff. Spell out things like the ownership of the work, licensing of any materials, payment, liability, and timing. You can add other things in there are well, but those are must haves.
Make sure to always get a deposit. I usually get 50% upfront and then additional work outside the scope gets paid upfront in full. Sometimes people will still ghost you out, but at least you won’t have lost out on everything.
Never send final files or files without a watermark until you’ve been fully paid. People will try to take advantage of you and steal your work. If there is nothing there to stop it from happening there will always be someone who will steal your work.
Stand firm and be careful with how accommodating you are. I made a conscious choice in this case to bend over backwards for a client who I thought would both appreciate my work and also bring me valuable connections. She has instead started doing what is common problem with freelancing. If you are too accommodating, they will constantly expect it. She emailed me at 9pm and demanded I send her new work by the next morning. She essentially asked me to work all night and forgo sleep to do this work, that she wasn’t going to pay for. When clients start making requests this ridiculous, they stop seeing you as a person. They start to see you and treat you like you are their personal servant. When this happens, be firm and stand up for yourself. You have to ask yourself is this client worth that much work and the sacrifice for your personal time. Or ask yourself how much money would it take for you to be willing to accommodate the ridiculous request. If the client is not willing to pay the amount or compromise on the request, stand firm. They will either change their request or go somewhere else. Both outcomes are good.
Have professional boundaries. This client somehow found my personal number and would call me late at night. I had to ask her to stop calling me at home because I have a family (Carl and my puppy, Mabel) and she was interrupting that time. I keep office hours and I have an office number via Google Voice. If someone calls my office number after hours, instead of forwarding to my phone, it goes to voicemail and I get a text of the transcript. While I may do a lot of work at night, I make it a point to wait and email people the next day during my listed work hours. If you respond to emails at night, clients will begin to expect you to be at their beck and call. Then you get phonecalls and emails on Christmas from clients wondering why you aren’t available or responding. If you act like you are a business people will respect those boundaries as if you really are a business. And those boundaries are important for your mental health.
Treat yourself with value. If you don’t treat your work and your time as valuable people will treat it the same way. Honestly, getting people to value your work and time is one of the hardest parts of freelancing or even just art in general. If you value yourself, your time, and your work, other people will start to follow suit. Albeit, others are a little slow on the uptake, but it does help. Don’t give out a lot of stuff for free, and be sure to price things out fairly for you. Don’t sell yourself short and you’ll get clients who’ll appreciate you even more.
To hear more freelance stories and get more tips, make sure to listen to our next episode of The Animator Life Podcast.
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