[Senza]

Hey all,

New to the forum, fairly new to freelance in general. I've found myself stressing out over clients and their inability to keep up with the (fast) pace of my work.

Two clients in particular who after agreeing to take on the project, and taking a retainer fee from them, took far too long to deliver their content to complete the project. I would create the designs rather quickly, have a fully functional website delivered within days. Then the week or so of design tweaks requested by the client. After that, I had pretty much sealed up my end of what was required of me, and at this point, I am waiting on content from the clients. Having phone calls/emails ignored, and working at their slow pace, these two projects that could have been wrapped up in three weeks at the most took over two months from start to paycheck. These delays were not caused by me, but by clients who dragged their feet.

I am now considering having my future clients sign more extensive contracts up front, with certain timeframes/requirements met on both parties behalf, and possible penalties for not meeting requirements. If I can promise and deliver all the requirements they've requested in website in XXdays, I feel I should be paid. If they want to wait 6 months to give me content, I feel that shouldn't be my problem to pay my rent.

I'm sure others have dealt with similar clients/situations, and am curious how you've handled it. Is more contracts/paperwork worth while?

Cheers,
Tyler

[herkalees]

I would love to hear answers/advice to this as well...

[seen.to]

The age old problem.

Take a deposit (you do take a deposit right?) or incremental payments, 3 is a good number. The first payment up front let's you do the design and revisions. 2nd payment upon agreement of design prior to coding - at this stage the content needs to be delivered by the client or you don't start coding and move on to the next project (make them aware of this fact).

Also consider incorporating a CMS and allowing the client to add their own content upon delivery of the finished product.

[Rik]

i personally don't mind clients dragging their feet... as long as the deadline for the project moves on i am happy.

the problem is allot of deadlines don't shift and we are left to pick up the pieces

[Clever Mind]

Im with seen.to, progress payments have been a good way to get around this. Simply take a deposit, then a payment upon 50% or 75% completion (design work and changes). Then your not out money if the client drags their feet getting you content. You can keep up with the emails and phone calls just as reminders but can move on to other projects. And then when the client gets all their content in order, take the 2 or 3 days and throw all the content into the design and code it and call it complete. Then get the rest of your money. And all of that can be in the contract they sign, and they know upfront that they will be paying two or three times. It works well and i have had a lot less stress with this issue since we started doing it here around here.

[herkalees]

I take deposits on every project and clients still drag their feet, totally screwing up timelines for the three other clients who are waiting for me to free up. Deposits or not, clients stall, and I would love to discover a way to reduce it...

[pgo]

Work on more than one at a time?

If Client A is dragging their feet, get to work on Client B's project. Don't let your productivity be determined by your client's productivity.

[herkalees]

Naturally, but what happens to client B (or A and C, for that matter) when A shows up three months late wanting to pick up where they left off, right away? What happens when client A is ten times more important to you than client B? Late, but important - they're a huge name to have in your portfolio. Client B gets the screw?

Sadly, I don't think there's any magic answer.

[H3LLRA1Z3R]

I know this is not the answer to the problem but, I find i get a better response from clients when I am in constant communication with them.

If they start to 'drag' hopefully by then I have established open lines of communication and asking then what the fuck is going on usually gets a response good enough to let me adjust my time frame and balance my work accordingly.

I know its not the answer you are looking for but if this is not usual practice it is worth a try.

[elementdesign]

In my experience, most clients fall behind. I think its partly due to them having enough of their own work to do and not realizing that they have to contribute to the project (even though its in the proposal).

When proposing a new project, I always make sure to include a estimated timeline in which both of us must adhere too. That way you can refer them to this when they start falling behind and have some leverage to get them moving.

My contract states that if the client delays the project, payments are still due within the proposed timeline. Also, the time the client delays is then tacked on to the end of the project. I make it clear that if the client starts to lag, my other work goes in front of them.

Most of the time its just that the client needs a little direction and a bit of hand holding. You have to remember that they're busy running their business (or doing their job) and the website is just another thing on their to do list. Many times they just need a reminder that you're waiting on something from them. A quick email usually does the trick.

I've never had to force a payment on a client but I am glad I take a deposit. I've had 2 clients skip out a few weeks into the project. I typically bill most projects in 3rds... Deposit, progress invoice and final payment. Never do more work that what you've currently been paid for.

Just a quick additional note about deposits and contracts (although I'm sure its been covered a million times here)... Always, always, always require a contract. Even if you're not going to require a deposit, get a signed contract. If the potential client won't sign a contract or pay a deposit, they likely don't plan on paying or aren't serious about the project. I've referred a few leads to another freelance friend of mine that doesn't "believe" in contracts and more often that not, they end up being dead-beat clients.

[JesseLY]

You're not alone in this at all. I've been doing web sites for about 9 years and this is one of the greatest frustrations I've had.

The one thing I realized long ago is that many clients become paralyzed when it comes to figuring out what they want to say about themselves or their business. And most clients are not comfortable with writing content.

Unless it's a decent size company with in-house marketing people, it's pretty much a given that the client will be late on providing materials - which in turn means I may not get paid the balance due for quite some time.

This is why I keep a lot of clients in the pipeline at one time. Currently, I have 11 different clients in various stages. Some have disappeared for months, others I only get a response from every couple weeks. It's a LOT of loose ends that drive me nuts. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), I've gotten quite used to it. But there's not a day that goes by that I don't try to figure out a better way.

-Jesse

[Dusteh]

My t & c's state that once work halts on a project for two solid weeks due to a lack of feedback from the client, I am allowed to invoice them for the work complete so far.

An invoice can give people a kick up the arse to get their side of the deal done. Failing that, if they pay it then great, you have the cash for your time, move on to the next job (If they don't pay it? Well... you have just unearthed a shitty client it wouldn't have been worth continuing with anyway?)

Make sure they are aware that there is a time issue once a project goes dead and they want to start it up again - probably include that in a letter with said invoice?

Since I've only been freelancing for 3 months this has only happened once so far, and the invoice suceeded in kick-starting the project. Make sure you keep up polite contact with the client, letting people know the invoice is coming because the project is dead, and you need to move onto other deadlines.

So far it's working. I'm thinking two weeks might be too soon, perhaps extend that to 3, or even a month.

[Justinskie]

JesseLY is correct, its the biggest problem in website creation, getting the content. Once you do get it its either to much or two little, but in this case more is always better I reckon, at least i can be trimmed down.

One format you could investigate is the complete reversal of starting the site before hand without the content. Stipulate that until all required content has been received and approved then and only then will you begin the actually process of designing and building the site.

This of course may turn some heads and have its own disadvantages but the major advantage is that all the parts of the puzzle will be in place and the design of the site can only improve from there as a full overview is available. Also this will minimise the client delays to a much smaller percentage.

Does anyone actually follow this practice and employ it, are the results positive or negative?

[transparent_opacity]

A combination of the above points work's well I find - 40% deposit > do design, approval of proof > 30% interim payment, when content is ready > build website, launch > final 30% invoice.

[JesseLY]

Justinskie, from my experience, if I held off on starting the process of designing the web site until I had all content from the client, we'd literally never get anything started! I think it's just too overwhelming for most small/medium sized businesses to have all of that pressure put on them from the start. They would just find someone else to go to who allowed them to be more lax.

[baileyrays]

Sometime client, test you and your patience.
They may like to know how you react if they delay, how you respond to their queries. This test help them to decide if he can think to work with you in future or not. Your way of handling response of client will help him to recommend about you to others.
You can take this as positive side.
One solution to execute project in perfect way is to, write each and points related with project in proposals make client understand.
Also think client have many work to do, do he may not be able to give time to reply you, in that case just have patience.

Just do your part in perfect way and give extra value addition to client.