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Anthony's avatar
Anthony D Community Member

Make clients more bound to their listed budgets

I'm very tired of seeing clients posting jobs with $2000+ fixed-rate budgets when in reality the budget is "just a placeholder" or the job is a "name your price" and therefore lowest bidder wins kind of thing.  So many clients try to circumvent price search filters (an therefore quality filters) just to clickbait freelancers via the enticing, but misleading, rate.

I suggest that clients be required to pay some % deposit on job listings over $1000.  To me, as a freelancer, this would show me that the client is genuine and serious, not just poking feelers into the freelancer pool to browse portfolios by leading with an offer they do not intend to deliver upon.  The client is already required to put funds in escrow and it streamlines the process even further.

15 REPLIES 15
Amanda's avatar
Amanda L Community Member

Wow, that's a terrible idea. I have so many clients where I've bid over their budget and won the job.

I don't want there to be anything that makes it more difficult for clients to post jobs. Connects are a cost of business and really what it comes down to is that you weren't what the client is looking for. If the client goes for the lowest bidder, then they weren't the right client for you anyway. It's just the cost of doing business.

You don't think the more than one clients who left feedback saying you were unprofessional is more the problem?
Sarah's avatar
Sarah B Community Member

You definitely don't want to assume that placeholder budgets or jobs looking for bids with no range indicated automatically go to the lowest bidder. As Amanda mentioned, freelancers regularly win jobs when they're not the cheapest. So I suggest bidding your price professionally, and figure out how to make yourself stand out in your niche/field so that you're not just competing on price, if that's something you want to do. 

Preston's avatar
Preston H Community Member

re: "Make clients more bound to their listed budgets"

 

No. Definitely not.

 

The listed budget is irrelevant.

 

I have worked on projects that had a listed budget of only $100 or $200, and ended up earning thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

 

Clients can change their mind about what they want done. An effective freelancer hired to do one simple thing might become a go-to freelancer called on to do much more.

 

A client may need to change plans and end up paying a freelancer to do only the first step in what had once been envisioned as a much larger project.

 

There is nothing wrong with that.

 

What is important is that freelancers get paid for the work that they do. The budget doesn't matter at all.

 

If I get hired to do Task X, then as a freelancer, I need to tell the client how much I will charge to do Task X. If I don't do that, because I am thinking about other tasks, then the fault is my own.

 

And as far as contracts going to low bidders. I don't doubt that this happens. But I believe that is NOT how the majority of clients operate. I think most Upwork clients are sophisticated enough to understand that the low bid isn't necessarily going to produce usable results for them. If a low bid freelancer can get a client what she needs, then that who is who she should hire. But for most work posted on Upwork, a low bid freelancer won't produce the needed result, and won't be who a savvy client hires.

 

Are there clients who are schemers? Yes. Are there clients who will post jobs intending to "trick" freelancers with regards to how much they really plan to spend, or with regards to what contract model they intend to use? Yes.

 

But those represent a small minority of clients. Most jobs posted on Upwork are posted by clients who just want to get some work done, and getting a low cost is not their primary concern.

Petra's avatar
Petra R Community Member

Another "Absolutely not!" from me. Budgets are a starting poin for a conversation, nothing more. 

Mikko's avatar
Mikko R Community Member

Please no!

 

Clients (myself included) are bombarded by dozens of random copy-pasted proposals so definitely we shouldn't make it more difficult for clients to hire the most suitable freelancer by whatever criteria they have. The best freelancer wins. Let it be so.

 

I don't think it is very difficult to see which client is decent and which is not even with the current functions of this site. The stats and reviews tell a lot and the rest you can find out in an interview. Just screen the clients well.

Alexander's avatar
Alexander N Community Member

As a person who once did a $30000+ job advertised as $1000 job, i would object 🙂

Andrew's avatar
Andrew V Community Member

To be honest, it's better to finally make some standarts in job posting, because I'm tired to see all those "$5" or "$123,456" placeholder jobs without any useful info inside - just "We are looking for medium level designer" from the clients without Verified Payment Info (without any info at all tbh). So, I need to spend payed Connects and spend my time just to get basic info of what budget client do have and what kind of job should be done.

 

It's so hard to become upwork's freelancer (a couple of my friends tried to register here, and received a denial because "they portfolio is not so good for upwork"), but it's so easy to post trashy jobs without any info inside, without budget - just "We need a designer, send us message to get details".

Christine's avatar
Christine A Community Member


Andrew V wrote:

To be honest, it's better to finally make some standarts in job posting, because I'm tired to see all those "$5" or "$123,456" placeholder jobs without any useful info inside - just "We are looking for medium level designer" from the clients without Verified Payment Info (without any info at all tbh). So, I need to spend payed Connects and spend my time just to get basic info of what budget client do have and what kind of job should be done.

 

It's so hard to become upwork's freelancer (a couple of my friends tried to register here, and received a denial because "they portfolio is not so good for upwork"), but it's so easy to post trashy jobs without any info inside, without budget - just "We need a designer, send us message to get details".


Part of building your business as a freelancer is learning how to spot good clients, and not bidding on projects for bad clients. Just ignore projects with nonsense budgets and insufficient details. It's not Upwork's job to vet clients for you, and I wouldn't want them to try.

 

And I disagree with you - it's much too easy to get accepted on Upwork, and there are just as many trashy freelancers as there are trashy clients. Let them go ahead and work with each other.

 

Jennifer's avatar
Jennifer M Community Member

Rumor (or rumoUr if you're from U land) has it that you can type how much it costs into a form field when you bid. I heard you can chat with clients to determine a budget after you bid. It's just rumor and very very rare to find these freelancers with powers to determine how much it costs and ignore budgets. One day I hope to be one of them.

Jamie's avatar
Jamie F Community Member


Jennifer M wrote:

Rumor (or rumoUr if you're from U land) has it that you can type how much it costs into a form field when you bid. I heard you can chat with clients to determine a budget after you bid. 


What is this sorcery? 

Jennifer's avatar
Jennifer M Community Member


Jamie F wrote:

Jennifer M wrote:

Rumor (or rumoUr if you're from U land) has it that you can type how much it costs into a form field when you bid. I heard you can chat with clients to determine a budget after you bid. 


What is this sorcery? 


Excuse me, I'm a guru.

 

Christine A wrote:

Jennifer M wrote:

Rumor (or rumoUr if you're from U land) has it that you can type how much it costs into a form field when you bid. I heard you can chat with clients to determine a budget after you bid. It's just rumor and very very rare to find these freelancers with powers to determine how much it costs and ignore budgets. One day I hope to be one of them.


Dare to dream, Jennifer - dare to dream.

 

Oh, and I'm pretty sure that it's only "rumor" in the U S of A. One day you could learn to spell properly, too. (It's not just the Brits - the Irish, Kiwis, Aussies, Canadians etc. are all against you.)

 


omg does everyone see the abuse I take? Greens in my PMs. Christine saying I can't spell. I don't think any of you understand that I'm a Guru.

Christine's avatar
Christine A Community Member


Jennifer M wrote:

Rumor (or rumoUr if you're from U land) has it that you can type how much it costs into a form field when you bid. I heard you can chat with clients to determine a budget after you bid. It's just rumor and very very rare to find these freelancers with powers to determine how much it costs and ignore budgets. One day I hope to be one of them.


Dare to dream, Jennifer - dare to dream.

 

Oh, and I'm pretty sure that it's only "rumor" in the U S of A. One day you could learn to spell properly, too. (It's not just the Brits - the Irish, Kiwis, Aussies, Canadians etc. are all against you.)

 

Jennifer's avatar
Jennifer R Community Member

Spoiler
 

There is also a rumour that you are not allowed you link your website with contact information or a contact function in your profile.

Wes's avatar
Wes C Community Member


Anthony D wrote:

 

I suggest that clients be required to pay some % deposit on job listings over $1000.  


Let me be the seventeenth to say, absolutely not - for the same reason I don't ask my direct-invoiced clients to put down a deposit before we've signed a contract, and I don't pay a cover charge when I'm going into Best Buy.

 

I treat high budgets on postings just like I treat low ones. I ignore them. If the job looks interesting and like it has a chance to pan out, I bid my rate, or, if it's a fixed-rate post, I bid my best estimate based on the details available in the post and state that it's a placeholder that will be confirmed or revised after we talk. If it works out, it works out. If it doesn't, it doesn't. It works out enough that the times it doesn't are just noise in the cost of doing business.

 

Sarah's avatar
Sarah B Community Member


Wes C wrote:

 

I treat high budgets on postings just like I treat low ones. I ignore them. 

 


Well said.