How can a freelancer recognize an unwanted customer?

    I have been working as a freelancer for more than 4 years and have experience in dealing with various customers, experience in developing various projects. I tried to summarize my experience by creating a small memo, or rather a “stop list”, which I now use for early screening of customers, work with which brings neither joy nor benefit. It helps me save time and nerves. I hope it will be useful to you if you are a freelancer. It can also be useful for novice customers. I publish it here with small comments on each item.

    The “stop list” contains negative signs of the customer. Please note that a 1-2 point match may be an accident. If 3 or more points coincide, I refuse to work with the customer.

    All of the above is my considerations, and not the ultimate truth. I would be happy to discuss or adjust / expand this list.

    “Stop list” when choosing a Customer:


    1. The name of the project contains diminutive degrees - “make a small revision”, “create a simple website”, “a simple task”, etc.
      Comment: the customer initially underestimates the significance of this project, he seems to be “afraid” to attract the attention of a professional, usually this means a low cost of work.

    2. The title and description of the project have fuzzy wording of the assignment, there is no complete assignment for development, the customer does not seek to create it.
      Comment: the customer hurried with the start of development. Most often this is not one person, and when the project is almost ready, there will be changes that will require a lot of rework. You will spend more time than you expected.

    3. The task is to create a “clone”, “analog”, “exact copy” of some site.
      Comment: it’s almost the same as point 2. The customer is sure that “small” changes, when an exact copy is ready, will not require much of your labor. In most cases this is not the case.

    4. Customer contacts consist of nickname and ICQ, registration date less than six months ago.
      Comment: the customer is hiding, at best, he is hiding from spam. There are exceptions.

    5. The customer takes time, is in no hurry to discuss the project. For example, after your response, he asks to contact him "by ICQ tomorrow night", and does not ask to send information by e-mail.
      Comment: a “good” customer always wants to get the result faster and this is normal. If the customer is heavily loaded and cannot plan his work on this project, most likely it will not end with anything good for you.

    6. The customer replaces the described project with another - for example, "we need an online store for 150,000 rubles and we liked you, but we have a more urgent project for 5,000 rubles."
      Comment: in most cases, 150,000 rubles is a “carrot” in front of the nose. You try to get it and at the same time carry a big cart and endure the whip of the driver.

    7. The project is at the stage of “discussion”, “approval”, “budget decision”, etc.
      Comment: in fact, this means that the customer does not know whether this project will be launched or not. You can talk with the customer, consult him - this is a good practice, but do not expect money from him.

    8. The project announcement contains spelling or stylistic errors.
      Comment: random spelling mistakes are common to everyone. If they are in the ad, this may indicate the carelessness of the customer. The deliberate spelling mistakes apparently indicate a desire to attract “self-similar” students to the development or a low level of customer culture. Worse if the mistakes are stylistic - it is believed that a person expresses his thoughts in writing in the same way as he builds them in his head. Stylistic mistakes can talk about confusion in the customer’s thoughts, about his inability to clearly formulate the task and to clear agreements. There are exceptions, but very rarely.

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