communicating costs to the client

[ivanstrug]

Hi,

I've been out from the platform for a couple of years and now thanks to the virus I am back. 

I don't thing much changed since that time (at least in the financial modeling / business advisory / management consulting): 

- there are a lot of non-responding clients that do not hire anyone 

- there still a lot of academic cheating 

- there are a lot of clients that penny-wise dollar-foolish (if I use the correct idiom)

While the first two items are somewhat manageable - it looks like I need to invest about $30-$40 into connects that will subsequently be recycled and academic cheating is something that I've been reporting, the issue with the clients that hire cheap labor and end up spending substantially more money (and it all likelihood getting inferior product) is not going anywhere.

As an example - there was a client that wanted to collect a lot of fairly simple data on about 100 companies. Because I had invested in the right tools and data subscriptions I was able to do this job from 30 minutes to 1 hour which I indicated in my proposal where I indicated $100 per hour rate. Instead client hired 5 freelancers for $10-$25 her hour and had already paid them about $400. What is more important for him/her, the data that they are going to collect from public sources (it is market data) will be heterogeneous (due to wide market swings from one day to another) and it will be difficult to reconcile while everything is collected.     

This is obviously an extreme case, but so far I've seen quite a few clients that are low-balling, spending money on unprofessional freelancers and than at the best case coming back to the platform to hire someone again (and in the worst case, at least for Upwork and its shareholders, not leaving platform dissatisfied).

I am curious how people in other sectors, particularly in software development are addressing this issue.  

[florydev]

I don’t spend any time worrying about cheap clients as they are not my clients. Anyone who wants to hire cheap and in bulk has no use for me and I have no use for them. If I waste a few connects in a client who is not for me I consider that the price of doing business.

[wlyonsatl]

It is odd that Upwork doesn't allow freelancers to include in their proposals both their hourly charge and their expectation of how much time will be required to complete a project.

There is no perfect way to do it, but comparing a highly efficient professional who charges $80 per hour and expects to spend 5 hours on a project to another freelancer who only charges $25 per hour but would need 20 hours is not a possibility under the current system of submitting proposals.

This would be less useful for clients who have no idea how long it should take to complete their project, but experienced clients would know whether 5 hours or 20 hours is a more reasonable estimate.

[feed_my_eyes]

---

Ivan S wrote:

Hi,

I've been out from the platform for a couple of years and now thanks to the virus I am back. 

I don't thing much changed since that time (at least in the financial modeling / business advisory / management consulting): 

- there are a lot of non-responding clients that do not hire anyone 

- there still a lot of academic cheating 

- there are a lot of clients that penny-wise dollar-foolish (if I use the correct idiom)

While the first two items are somewhat manageable - it looks like I need to invest about $30-$40 into connects that will subsequently be recycled and academic cheating is something that I've been reporting, the issue with the clients that hire cheap labor and end up spending substantially more money (and it all likelihood getting inferior product) is not going anywhere.

As an example - there was a client that wanted to collect a lot of fairly simple data on about 100 companies. Because I had invested in the right tools and data subscriptions I was able to do this job from 30 minutes to 1 hour which I indicated in my proposal where I indicated $100 per hour rate. Instead client hired 5 freelancers for $10-$25 her hour and had already paid them about $400. What is more important for him/her, the data that they are going to collect from public sources (it is market data) will be heterogeneous (due to wide market swings from one day to another) and it will be difficult to reconcile while everything is collected.     

This is obviously an extreme case, but so far I've seen quite a few clients that are low-balling, spending money on unprofessional freelancers and than at the best case coming back to the platform to hire someone again (and in the worst case, at least for Upwork and its shareholders, not leaving platform dissatisfied).

I am curious how people in other sectors, particularly in software development are addressing this issue.  

---

If you've been here before, then nothing has changed. I think it's fair to say that the majority of clients are looking for a bargain (as always), and if you charge more than most freelancers, then there are fewer clients who will hire you. So I guess it's down to making a decision: would you rather win one contract that pays $100, or 10 contracts that pay $10 each?

I try not to worry too much about what other freelancers are charging or whether there are some clients who expect 97 hours worth of expert work for $5; I just do my own thing and get on with running my business.

BTW, not all of your connects will be "recycled" - you'll need to buy more when you run out.