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madbanditroy
Community Member

Dissatisfied with clients

I've been kind in a rut lately, dealing with clients who don't know exactly what they want and/or being flakey with payment (not paying whole amount). I want to charge more to get a better cliente, but it looks weird, having an 88% JSS. There's a part of me that wants to quit, but I'm not good at anything else. So, I'm stuck. Any advice?
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melaniekhenson
Community Member

Nah. I bumped my rate by $20 when my JSS was in the 80s. I continued to get work and my JSS continued to go up. Particularly based in NY, a $5 hourly rate seems to indicate really, really low-quality work and desperation levels, and you know that's not the case. I think you should just try bumping your rate and then see how it goes.

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7 REPLIES 7
robin_hyman
Community Member

Hey Leroy,

 

When you're working with clients willing to pay $5 an hour, you'll get stuck with clients who aren't satisfied and who don't want to pay.  Start applying for jobs with slightly higher hourly rates/fixed project rates and go above and beyond for those clients to get 5 star ratings.  "Above and beyond" = be extremely responsive, offer suggestions improving project outcome, turn around work before deadline.  

 

Make sure your profile stands out.  You're a writer so sound exciting.  Like everyone should want to work with you (without being too cocky).  You're in an extremely competitive space (I'm a marketing copywriter) and there are only so many suitable jobs out there.  

 

Good luck!
Robin

Leroy,

 

I can only echo everything that Robin outlined.

These UW waters that we're all fishing in are particularly rough lately, and the fish just ain't bitin'!

Ride it out or reel it in and cut bait.

 

Best from Bk.

 

Well, I do turn the assignments on time, but the clients are not always articulate with what they want. I charged $5 (not anymore) because charging more didn't attract clients. I can only do so much with people who are sometimes impractical.


Leroy P wrote:
Well, I do turn the assignments on time, but the clients are not always articulate with what they want. I charged $5 (not anymore) because charging more didn't attract clients. I can only do so much with people who are sometimes impractical.

Freelancing is a service business. Being able to recognize your clients' needs and work with them to achieve their goals is a big part of achieving success. 

melaniekhenson
Community Member

Nah. I bumped my rate by $20 when my JSS was in the 80s. I continued to get work and my JSS continued to go up. Particularly based in NY, a $5 hourly rate seems to indicate really, really low-quality work and desperation levels, and you know that's not the case. I think you should just try bumping your rate and then see how it goes.
tlsanders
Community Member

In addition to the good advice others have offered, take the time to gather more information from the client and make sure you have a clear idea of what they're looking for BEFORE you accept a contract. It's okay to walk away if you can see that the relationship is going to be pulling teeth, but do it before there's a contract to impact your ratings.

kat303
Community Member

With a whole bunch of $5 and $8 jobs on your work history, you are attracting the cheap clients. Good clients will not want to work with you because they think you are providing low quality work because of those prices. You list your hourly rate at $25 and those are the clients you should be looking for and submitting proposals to. The "low" feedback reviews you got are from those cheap clients. No matter how hard you work, no matter how perfect your work is, those clients will never be satisfied. Those are not the clients you want to be working for, especially if you live in N.U. where the minimum wages are $15.00 an hour. 

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