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adnan1naeem
Community Member

New clients

Hey I recently got an nvite of a client who is totaly new to upwork. After few discussion he offered me a contract. I am hesitating accepting the contract that client does not have any history as he is new on upwork
If he is not suitable he might effect my review and jss. What should we do with such clients.
3 REPLIES 3
jr-translation
Community Member


Adnan N wrote:
Hey I recently got an nvite of a client who is totaly new to upwork. After few discussion he offered me a contract. I am hesitating accepting the contract that client does not have any history as he is new on upwork
If he is not suitable he might effect my review and jss. What should we do with such clients.

Trust your guts, follow the rules and if it goes South, use your perk.

prestonhunter
Community Member

I am an experienced freelancer. I know how Upwork works.

So I have no reluctance about working with new clients.

 

If a new client is uncertain about how things are supposed to work, then I can be their guide.

 

If you are a brand new freelancer working with a brand new client, then it is certainly possible for there to be confusion and some stumbling around to get things right. But if you are an experienced Upwork freelancer, you don't need to worry about that.

 

If you are an experienced Upwork freelancer, then the only reason I can see for reluctance is that a new client does not have a proven track record. Can they be trusted? As an experienced freelancer, I know enough about the system that I know how to handle things if the client turns out to NOT be trustworthy. For example, any time I work for a client I have not worked with before, I will not agree to large fixed-price milestones/contracts. I will agree to an initial milestone/contract worth only an hour or two of work, and I will make sure that the client behaves professionally and pays as expected. If not, I can walk away without having invested too much time.

andrews_jay
Community Member

It's always a risk.  I've been on here 3 years, and just last week I politely declined a project that I previuosly said I would accept, because the client gave me a typical red flag of unrealistic expectations.  

 

It partly depends on how desparate you are to get work, but also how careful that you want to be that your ratings don't get damaged by problem clients, which I think could potentially ruin your would-be Upwork career.

 

I had one potential client early on that I'm so glad I didn't take on.  He and I were both new on here at the time.  He had the kind of business that I would have loved to have on my client roster, but ultimately he demonstrated that I could not trust him, and so I moved on without accepting any of his nebulous offers.

 

Turn a few pages in the story and I've gone on to collect some excellent short and long term clients, and occasionally I'll see a new ad with this same potential client, and when I check his reviews, bingo, many freelancers giving him lots of negative feedback.  So glad I denied my desperation and instead did the right thing and walked away from him.

 

On the other hand, my by far most lucrative client, I initially thought was a small time no big deal, but applied and interviewed anyway.  So glad I didn't blow him off, as working with his team has been instrumental in my success.

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