Why do freelancers ask me my budget when we'v...

shmooth · ‎10-09-2020

I'm confused about something.

Why do freelancers ask me my budget when we've already agreed on my budget?

So, i post a job, someone bids, i contact them, we chat out any details that might not have been clear in the job/project description/proposal, and then when we're about to consummate, the freelancer says to me, "What's your budget?"

What? Why? Does he think I won the lottery in the last 15 seconds and now I'm looking to give some of it away?

lysis10 · ‎10-09-2020

Because for some weird reason freelancers think it's smart to ask a budget and then bid based on your budget. It's shady. Like telling a car salesman your budget so they get you the cheapest car on the lot and upcharge you so they make more money on the cheapest product.

Beware these freelancers. I wish Upwork would let clients put no budget because 99% of freelancers won't know what to do. lol

timefighter11 · ‎10-09-2020

If someone questions you like this again, use it as an opportunity and tell them the budget lesser than what you already mentioned.

And also, I am curious, how do you deal with them?

shmooth · ‎10-10-2020

Mostly i ask them 'Why would you ask me that?' and always get a non-answer, then I end up trying another freelancer or canceling the job/project outright.

Then I may or may not try to re-post the job again in the future, or I may hunt for freelancers without posting the job, I look on other sites, go thru other avenues, and honestly nothing has worked generally.

petra_r · ‎10-10-2020

Peter S wrote:
Mostly i ask them 'Why would you ask me that?' and always get a non-answer, then I end up trying another freelancer or canceling the job/project outright.

Then I may or may not try to re-post the job again in the future.

As I said, if it happens more than once in a while, your budget on the job post is likely very low. By doing the above you likely also have a low hire rate, so many freelancers will avoid spending their money to bid on your job posts.

petra_r · ‎10-09-2020

If that happens frequently, it likely means that the budget is so wildly out of touch with reality that freelancers assume it to have to be a placeholder.

prestonhunter · ‎10-09-2020

This is an interesting question.

As a client, I have hired over 100 freelancers, but I don't think I have been asked this question. I hire freelancers for very specific short-term projects, like a single art commission or writing task, or a technical server task that they know is a straightforward hourly job. So there's probably no rational reason to ask about a "budget."

If I was hiring for other types of work, such as large development projects, how would I handle it if a freelancer asked me about a budget. I would probably mostly ignore the question.

My project's budget would not really be anybody's business except perhaps a project manager or someone in the finance department. It wouldn't be something a developer needs to know.

If I am hiring you using an hourly contract, then you get paid for your time. If you work for 1 hour, you get paid for one hour. If you work for 50 hours, you get paid for 50 hours.

I definitely would not mind if a developer wanted to know about the scope of the project, but he wouldn't need to ask about the budget (as happened to the client who wrote the original post).

If this was a fixed-price contract, then a developer and I would discuss a price for "this task." I would never hire a developer for a specific cost for a large project. You can't get large projects done that way. You need to hire people to do specific tasks, one after another. Typically you need to hire multiple people if the project is quite large. So the only thing a developer would need to be concerned about is THIS TASK that he is assigned to. If it is a fixed-price contract, he would need to be given the task description and then provide a cost for him to do that task. That cost - for the task he is working on - is the only number that should matter. The entire budget likely involves work done by many people, and how much they are paid is not any of his concern.

shmooth · ‎10-10-2020

this actually makes a whole lot of sense. a whole lot.

it would be the first explanation that makes any sense at all, actually.

wow. nice.

ok, so every freelancer has been afraid to tell me that i'm trying to charge 1/10th or 1/100th the actual cost for them to get the project done. i guess i understand that, but **bleep**. that's insane.

because they've all also wanted me to award the project to them anyways. so, a freelancer would do my project even if it was going to cost them 99% of the project cost?? how does that make sense?

i did try to ping someone and ask, basically, "Well, why are we going thru this budget/bid dance to begin with? Why isn't this site, Upwork, set up like a home contracting bid? Here are my house specs, here are any special conditions, here are my requirements, what is your bid?"

And I choose based on all my criteria - contractor quality, timeline, money, etc. etc.

So, one time I set the bid at like $10 because everyone seemed to be ignoring it anyways, and then Upwork counselor/helper guy I paid for said, "Duh, make it higher" -- and I canceled the project right after that because this entire endeavor is totally stupid. I mean, I would not have thought to set a placeholder dollar amount if the real dollar amounts were not working.

In defense of Upwork, i have used upwork in the past for various things - typically very small projects $200 or less - a logo or similar - and those have worked.

But I guess this one is bigger, so....

And/or, sometimes I've posted just a one-line project description - like 'simple app that sends photos' - because i know that every freelancer is just going to ask me what my budget is later anyways, after we've already presumably negotiated it.

So, one lesson, maybe, is to fully-specify the project, within reason. I don't suspect that makes any difference because that is where I started. I have experience as an engineer, project manager, product manager, engineering manager, i'm cloud and java certified, can full stack code and run devops and etc., so I have a pretty good handle on how to specify a project. But didn't seem to make a difference so far.

Then, maybe I can add a note at the top of the project description that says something like, "Barring any misunderstanding on your part of the project requirements, bid will not be renegotiated, so if you bid $10, you will be expect to complete the project for $10." -- something like that.

Then, cross fingers?

What else am I missing?

I mean, my ultimate goal is to get my project done, have the person stay on with me forever until we get rich and save the world. But no luck so far.

petra_r · ‎10-10-2020

Peter S wrote:
And/or, sometimes I've posted just a one-line project description - like 'simple app that sends photos' - because i know that every freelancer is just going to ask me what my budget is later anyways, after we've already presumably negotiated it.

To be honest, when a freelancer sees a short job post with no details and a low budget, they can be forgiven for bidding the stated budget because they have to put something in there and then expecting to agree a budget after properly scoping out the project.

Peter S wrote:
Then, maybe I can add a note at the top of the project description that says something like, "Barring any misunderstanding on your part of the project requirements, bid will not be renegotiated, so if you bid $10, you will be expect to complete the project for $10." -- something like that.

Don't do that. It's literally one of those HUUUUUUUUUGE "Don't bid, client is more trouble than they're worth" red flags...

martina_plaschka · ‎10-10-2020

Peter S wrote:
I'm confused about something.

Why do freelancers ask me my budget when we've already agreed on my budget?

So, i post a job, someone bids, i contact them, we chat out any details that might not have been clear in the job/project description/proposal, and then when we're about to consummate, the freelancer says to me, "What's your budget?"

What? Why? Does he think I won the lottery in the last 15 seconds and now I'm looking to give some of it away?

Just put "budget amount is not a placeholder" in your job description to weed out any freelancers that think your budget MUST be a placeholder or just a joke.