Financial Security in Freelance

    According to statistics, today more and more people prefer to earn money without having a higher boss. Yes, yes, I mean freelance (and for those who don't like new-fangled buzzwords - it's about homework). And if earlier people worked mainly from Western countries, then recently the wave has reached us.

    Naturally, home-based work, like all other types of employment, has both its negative and positive sides. If we consider every such moment, you get at least a treatise, and at most a doctoral dissertation or a weighty book. Therefore, in this article I will touch upon only one aspect - how to protect yourself as much as possible from customers who want to get the results of your work for free.


    Personal experience - in business!

    I myself have been working as a copywriter for more than two years, and therefore, based on my own experience, I will tell you specifically about the material security of transactions between a text writer and a customer.

    So, if the customer deceived you, and simply put it in a throw, you should not shift all responsibility to it. Yes, everyone who works remotely is at risk, but practice shows that the lion's share of trouble can be avoided, which means that in this situation, the responsibility lies in some way with the employee himself. Agree, because we are not forced to work with this or that person - we choose all employers ourselves.

    How to distinguish a decent customer from an unscrupulous one who wants to do nothing and at the same time eat a fish?

    I’ll tell you by what criteria I filter potential employers, the search for which occurs on the appropriate freelancer resources.

    1. The first thing you should pay attention to is the reputation of the person who knocks on you with the desire to use the services. Here I have in mind not only the reputation expressed in numbers, which is usually practiced on most forums. Reputation in my understanding is a whole complex of indicators characterizing the user (possible future employer) from one side or another. What are you talking about? I will explain in more detail. No one will argue with the fact that his deeds and actions most eloquently testify to a man. So, it will be useful to re-read the reviews of other usersabout your potential customer, see in which topics he was noted, and for what purpose he created his topics. It is clear that if other members of the Internet community complain about your potential customer and leave reasoned negative feedback about cooperation, then you should think about whether it makes sense to contact him at all.
    2. Further, if you communicate via ICQ, be sure to check if the ICQ number is in the so-called “black lists” . If the account was registered just a couple of days ago - this is also a cause for serious concern.
    3. Direct online communication (using ICQ, Skype, other chats and online clients) with a potential employer allows you to quickly filter out all kinds of "inadequate". Personally, I will not undertake the execution of the order even if the person’s messages contain a huge number of grammatical errors. Most often, after talking for a couple of minutes on the same ICQ, you can more or less clearly imagine who is sitting on the other side of the screen. Here, I do not mean what you hoped to get a pretty girl as a customer, but it turned out that a bearded SEO guy was hiding behind a sweet and pleasant interlocutor. We are talking about the competence of a person who is about to place an order with you. So, if the knocking person introduced himself as an SEO-optimizer, but when you ask what percentage of keys in the text is required, you are interested in what keys are, in order to avoid further problems with such “customers” it is better not to get involved.
    4. Continuing the topic covered in paragraph 3, I note that from the occurrence of claims on the part of the customer, which can result in the form of financial losses for the contractor, a technical assignment (TOR) is a good defense . That is, all requirements of the employer must be agreed in advance. Naturally, writing texts is a creative process in some way, and the customer’s assessment can be expressed as likes / dislikes, but if, for example, a specific percentage of keywords is specified in the terms of reference, then you won’t erase words from the song, but what is written with a pen cannot be cut down with an ax and the customer will no longer be able to justify the refusal of payment by the fact that your work does not meet his requirements. In extreme cases, such a conflict can be resolved with the involvement of third parties.
    5. It so happens that the customer, verified by long-term cooperation, recommends you to a friend or colleague. Naturally, all the above precautions are in force and it’s not worth relaxing, but still no one canceled such a moment as a guarantee . That is, if your customer recommends a person as adequate, this is an additional plus for cooperation with a new client.
    6. A partial or 100% prepayment on the part of the customer is also called upon to reduce the financial risks of the contractor. Naturally, in order to be able to count on such a kind of “insurance”, the contractor himself must inspire some confidence in the potential customer, which means he must have at least a good reputation, the criteria for which are described above. It even happens that an employee with a good reputation does not undertake to complete an order without having received an advance payment. It is up to the customer to decide whether to trust their hard-earned money to a stranger or not.
    7. A phased payment for the work done can significantly reduce the risks . For example, this type of cooperation is quite convenient for copywriters - you agree with the customer that the articles you have written will be sent one at a time (two, three, five is how you agree), and after approval by the employer, your electronic wallet will be sent payment. Naturally, no one guarantees that the customer will not hide with the received articles, but you must admit that losing your salary in one day is not so offensive as working for some unscrupulous uncle for a week, or even more.
    As you can see, in freelance, however, as in any other business, you should be extremely careful in choosing potential customers. It seems that for more or less experienced freelancers the above rules have long been derived from their own working experience, but still it will not be superfluous to refresh useful information again and again. In addition, it should be remembered that observing a certain set of rules, one can establish not only successful long-term cooperation, but also create a whole team consisting of people united by common goals and interests.

    Also popular now: