milestone contracts best way suggestion to use them

[g_urgeghe]

Hi Everyone, I'm a designer and I'm very happy with how things are going on upwork. Generally my clients ask me for a  fixed price contracts, and I also prefer them over hourly contracts. generally for any amount I ask to split it into two milestones, the first will be released after I have delivered the 2/3 drafts in jpg to the customer after this I request the activation of the second one, and i will make corrections and send the master files to the customer, after this I ask for the release of the second and last milestone. rarely, however, it happens that the path is interrupted ... I explain better, the customer is very happy with the drafts and the designs, but after  the first milestone release  I do not hear him for some time and they respond very late with apologies. Does it happen to you too? Am I wrong to use milestones in this way? Any suggestions are welcome

[feed_my_eyes]

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Just charge them for however much time you think it'll take to complete the first milestone. I normally set up the first milestone for about 85% of the fee (for submitting the first draft or round of options), then 10% for one round of revisions and 5% for a second round of revisions. If the client doesn't need any revisions, then they don't have to pay for them, and it doesn't matter how long it takes for them to get back to me (or whether they get back to me at all), because I've already been paid. If they need more than two rounds of revisions, then they need to add another milestone.

If it sounds like a job is going to be long and complicated, then I'll only do it as an hourly contract. Just because the client posts a fixed price project doesn't mean that you can't negotiate.

[g_urgeghe]

Thanks Christine for your tip, it sounds like a great strategy. I had thought of raising the first milestone to 70/80% but I was afraid that for some 2/3K  contracts the customer may be afraid to found the first milestone with a designer he doesn't know. How do you answer when the customer tells you "and if I don't like the 3 drafts?" do you propose additional drafts with an extra cost?

[feed_my_eyes]

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Giacomo U wrote:

How do you answer when the customer tells you "and if I don't like the 3 drafts?" do you propose additional drafts with an extra cost?

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That kind of thing only ever happens with logo design projects, in my experience, and I could never bring myself to say, "Well, tough luck if you didn't like any of the designs, you'll need to pay me more to come up with new concepts." In theory, you SHOULD stand your ground and ask for the milestone to be paid after delivery of whatever number of initial concepts you agreed. But my solution was to stop doing logos except for established clients. (Sorry, I realise that's not very helpful, but it's all I've got!)

[g_urgeghe]

That's right, I forgot to mention. In the last time I have worked mainly for branding, I offer a branding system that also includes packaging, stationary and other deliverables. It happened to me rarely, especially the first times of finding customers who wanted other revisions, but they were customers not used to working with designers ... now I avoid them and things are better 🙂

[feed_my_eyes]

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Giacomo U wrote:

That's right, I forgot to mention. In the last time I have worked mainly for branding, I offer a branding system that also includes packaging, stationary and other deliverables. It happened to me rarely, especially the first times of finding customers who wanted other revisions, but they were customers not used to working with designers ... now I avoid them and things are better 🙂

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Yes, learning how to avoid bad clients is a key to success here. But there's no way that I'd do a whole branding project except hourly; I learned that the hard way.