5 Red Flags That a Potential Client Doesn’t Know How to Work With Freelancers
Inexperienced clients can cause headaches for freelancers. Here are 5 red flags to watch out for so you can protect yourself and your business.
There’s a lot of advice out there for inexperienced freelancers. How much to charge, how to deal with difficult clients, how to manage your work. But the advice often overlooks that a client can also be inexperienced, meaning they’ve never worked with a freelancer before.
A combo of an inexperienced freelancer and an inexperienced client might be fine… or it might be a disaster. An inexperienced client might not have the right expectations for a client-freelancer relationship. And an inexperienced freelancer can quickly lose control of the situation.
If you’re a new freelancer, here are some red flags that a client hasn’t worked with freelancers before. If you decide to take on the client, you’ll probably have to guide the relationship more than other clients. Be prepared to assert your boundaries and the scope of the agreement.
1. Asks for a resume
Some potential clients will have a job posting, just like any other job, and indicate that the role is freelance. If the job posting requires a resume, that’s a huge red flag for me. It often means that the client thinks of the freelancer as a pseudo-employee, rather than an independent professional.
Companies that regularly work with freelancers understand that most freelancers don’t maintain resumes. Prior employment might be completely irrelevant. And some freelancers have never had a 9–5 job.
For me, personally, I do a lot of ad hoc work so my client list is long. If a prospective client asks for a resume, I’m not even sure what they’re expecting me to include.
I’ve considered creating a PDF that says “Resume” at the top and the body of the document is a link to my portfolio. A prospective client might be irked by this, but I’ve never gained a client that asks for a resume anyway, so I have nothing to lose. Perhaps it would educate the prospective client that asking for a resume isn’t appropriate for a freelancer.
In reality, I’ve stopped applying to freelance roles that ask for resumes.
Freelancers don’t have resumes. They have portfolios and sample work. Experienced clients know this.
2. Has a multi-step interview process
If you’ve ever seen the TV show Mad Men, there’s a scene where a copywriter is interviewing for a job (Season 5, Episode 3). During the interview, he says, “You looked at my book. What more can I say?”
I’ve had clients hire me without ever having a call with me. They look at my portfolio, reach out, and sign a contract. At most, clients might have a single call to learn more about my work and my process.
If you’re being hired for substantial, ongoing work, you might expect a call with more than one stakeholder. But outside of that, requests for multiple calls are similar to a request for a resume. The prospective client is treating the process like hiring an employee, not partnering with a freelancer.
I had a company ask for three interviews. Each interview was nearly identical to the last: same questions, but with a different person internally. Not only was it not a good use of my time, it wasn’t a good use of their time. They could have just shared notes from the prior call to review my responses.
Looking back, I wish I’d pulled myself out of the process when the company requested a third call. My gut was telling me that they were putting me through the paces like an employee. (Same company also asked for a resume…)
Additionally, requests for multiple calls show a lack of respect for your time. When you’re a freelancer, your time is literally money. If the prospective client is demanding multiple calls just to get the job, chances are they won’t respect your time once you’re hired either.
3. Asks for free work
Never give a client free work. Ever. I’ve known freelancers who have written sample blog posts or designed a sample strategy for a potential client for free. The freelancer doesn’t get the job and the client still uses or publishes the work.
At best, the client isn’t respecting your business. At worst, it’s a slimy way for the client to get free work they can later use.
A portfolio should be enough for most clients. If they want to test out the working relationship, they can pay you for a test project. I make clients sign an entire agreement before I do any work. My agreement has language around delivering ad hoc work (which is basically the same as a test project).
I’ve had clients only give me a single assignment and that’s fine. At least I’m compensated for my time and effort.
4. Vague project details
Inexperienced clients often know they need help from a freelancer, but can’t articulate the details of the project. The problem is that you might end up with misaligned expectations. The client is expecting some specific output and you’re not aware of the expectations. You could do everything right, and the client would still be unhappy with the result.
Experienced clients know that they need to give freelancers the context they need to get a good result.
I’ve been able to navigate inexperienced clients by having them follow the process I use for all projects. Sometimes it works, and we’re able to create a good working relationship. Sometimes it doesn’t. Even after my guidance, the client still doesn’t understand how to work with a freelancer.
You can guide a client through a project, but make sure that everything is part of your contract. You can outline things like:
- Timelines for delivery
- What you need from the client to get started (like an approved project brief)
- Any revisions you might make if the client isn’t satisfied.
But be aware that this is harder when you’re a new freelancer and don’t have a ton of client experience yet. You might not be able to anticipate potential issues and include them in your contract.
5. Lack of respect for your boundaries
Inexperienced clients expect immediate responses or seem irritated by your working hours. They expect you to join a lot of meetings, uncompensated.
To be fair, experienced clients can do this also, but it’s far less likely. If clients are used to working with freelancers, they know that freelancers control their own time. The best clients ask me how I like to work, rather than expecting me to conform to the way they work.
This is a really easy one because you can set expectations upfront and even write them into your contract. For example, you can let clients know that your turnaround time is a specific number of days, or that you only work during certain hours. My email signature says:
“Because I work asynchronously, my response times may vary. Please do not respond outside of your working hours and I’ll do the same.”
My contract also explicitly states how many meetings I’ll be joining. Some clients have a monthly call, and some have a call per deliverable. Anything above that, and the time is billable.
Remember, you have the right to control your time as a freelancer. If you want to work a lot of hours and be available to your clients, it should be your decision. Not because the client demands it.
Inexperienced clients can turn into a rocky relationship
If you see any of the red flags above, you can outright ask: “Have you worked with a freelancer before?”
If the answer is no, you need to prepare yourself to address any of the potential issues that may arise around boundaries or an unclear scope. If that makes you uncomfortable or you’re not sure you can wrangle the client, it’s probably not a good fit. The amount you’re paid might not be aligned with how much time and energy you put into the relationship.
Of course, I fully recognize that if you’re a new freelancer, you might not have a choice. We’ve all taken on less-than-ideal clients because we need the money. If that’s the case, the best thing you can do is try to protect yourself in your contract.
Take the work, if you need it. Maintain your boundaries, if you don’t need it. And keep in mind that you can always break up with a client later if the client ends up being too difficult.
Anna Burgess Yang
New to freelancing? Check out my pricing guide for freelancers. I trace my entire pricing history (from the earliest days!) and explain how I currently think about pricing.
