7 ms·

Freelancers and agencies: consider having all work prepaid. Your fears may say that clients won't go for it, but they are going for it with other agencies/cons

Freelancers and agencies: consider having all work prepaid. Your fears may say that clients won't go for it, but they are going for it with other agencies/consultants, and in other professions this is a mainstream way of doing business. Government and huge corporate sales might not go for it, but you should be adding a 0 to the end of your price quotes to them as compensation.

dhimes 14y ago
That wouldn't work for me as a client: I've dealt wit scummy freelancers, too. You could consider going through an agency- one that offers the ability to (1) escrow money, (2) keep a written record of agreements, and (3) provide mediation. There are costs to this, but, at least until you trust each other, they may be the way to go.
- joshcrews 14y ago
  I have everyone prepay me for Rails development. I think the reason it's not an issue is that they've worked with bad freelancers, and people that drop the ball, flake out, stop answering emails. They don't want that so bad that they will prepay me because they believe I'm not going to do that to them, they really want me to do their project, and so prepayment is a non-issue. Edit: I haven't asked for $30,000 in advance before; more like 20 hour blocks of time, or thirds of projects paid in advance
  - dhimes 14y ago
    OK- a deposit I fully agree with. But when I have prepaid (or paid the last installment before receiving the final code) I've been burned. In fact, a freelancer owes me some code as we speak that I will never see- but I don't really care because, surprise surprise, his code sucks too and I've someone else re-doing it. In fact, maybe that's a better bellweather: look at samples of code. The more professional it looks, the more professional I can expect the interaction to be. Seems reasonable- what do you think?
- timjahn 14y ago
  We actually do all 3 of these things at matchist (http://matchist.com/talent http://matchist.com/talent). Not because we only deal with scummy clients or developers, but because it makes both sides feel comfortable and then they can simply concentrate on the project at hand, instead of worrying about somebody running off with the money.
  - dhimes 14y ago
    I might use your site then. I've used vworker (but dropped them when they sold to freelancer) and found a quality guy there. I'm using elancer now with mixed results. I don't think the guy I had trouble with was scummy, just not very good (but thinks he is) and unprofessional in his manner. I paid him in full- even sent him a bonus in the middle when I realized the problem was harder than I anticipated, but never got anything usable from him.
    - timjahn 14y ago
      We're big on having only professional mannered, well communicating talent.
deleted 14y ago
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dhimes 14y ago

That wouldn't work for me as a client: I've dealt wit scummy freelancers, too. You could consider going through an agency- one that offers the ability to (1) escrow money, (2) keep a written record of agreements, and (3) provide mediation. There are costs to this, but, at least until you trust each other, they may be the way to go.

joshcrews 14y ago
I have everyone prepay me for Rails development. I think the reason it's not an issue is that they've worked with bad freelancers, and people that drop the ball, flake out, stop answering emails. They don't want that so bad that they will prepay me because they believe I'm not going to do that to them, they really want me to do their project, and so prepayment is a non-issue. Edit: I haven't asked for $30,000 in advance before; more like 20 hour blocks of time, or thirds of projects paid in advance
- dhimes 14y ago
  OK- a deposit I fully agree with. But when I have prepaid (or paid the last installment before receiving the final code) I've been burned. In fact, a freelancer owes me some code as we speak that I will never see- but I don't really care because, surprise surprise, his code sucks too and I've someone else re-doing it. In fact, maybe that's a better bellweather: look at samples of code. The more professional it looks, the more professional I can expect the interaction to be. Seems reasonable- what do you think?
timjahn 14y ago
We actually do all 3 of these things at matchist (http://matchist.com/talent http://matchist.com/talent). Not because we only deal with scummy clients or developers, but because it makes both sides feel comfortable and then they can simply concentrate on the project at hand, instead of worrying about somebody running off with the money.
- dhimes 14y ago
  I might use your site then. I've used vworker (but dropped them when they sold to freelancer) and found a quality guy there. I'm using elancer now with mixed results. I don't think the guy I had trouble with was scummy, just not very good (but thinks he is) and unprofessional in his manner. I paid him in full- even sent him a bonus in the middle when I realized the problem was harder than I anticipated, but never got anything usable from him.
  - timjahn 14y ago
    We're big on having only professional mannered, well communicating talent.

deleted 14y ago

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