4 Types of Freelancing Job Offers You Need to Think Twice Before Accepting

Do you keenly look into details of a Freelance job offer before accepting? Have you ever regretted after accepting a Freelancer job offer?

In this blog post, I share with you 4 types of Freelancing job offers you need to think twice before accepting.

With the competition in the Freelancing industry becoming fiercer every day, it’s very tempting to accept any job that comes your way. In fact, getting interviewed after bidding for a job is becoming harder with more qualified freelancers joining the bandwagon.

 This thus means that if you get a chance to be interviewed after sending your bid, the chances of accepting the job you will be offered afterwards is high.

So, how do you vet a freelance job offer before accepting? Remember, by accepting the job offer, you are responsible for any consequences that follow which include;

Handling Poor Communication

Some clients will hype you just before hiring you then go silent after hiring. They will promise to provide additional information to help you complete the project only to end up not communicating. Such behavior is truly heartbreaking and a total waste of time.

You Ending the Contract Out of Impatience

If the client does not provide you with all the required information to complete the contract, the only option you will have is to end the contract and refund the money deposited on escrow. Your freelancing sites’ support team will encourage you to communicate directly with your client in case of any dispute arising.

Being Badly Reviewed

This is the last thing any hard working freelancer will expect. If you have a high job score for delivering great service; one bad review will hurt your score. This is something you need to avoid at all cost.

Client Refusing to Pay you the Full Amount Agreed

This only applies to fixed type of contracts. Usually, it is based on agreement and is broken down into small milestones paid upon completion of a given assignment.

All of these and more are the consequences of accepting a job out of excitement and not doing your due diligence well. Success in the freelancing industry is very dependent on your ability to look keenly on what you are being offered. Here are Four characteristics of jobs you should reconsider when you are offered;

The client is Insisting that You use a Specific Software and You are required to Buy it

Now, you will not know this until you check the software pricing. In most occasions, when you compare, the amount of money the client is offering, it is equal to 60-80% the cost of the software. This means if you accept the job, you will take home 20-40% of the pay. Unless, the client is offering to pay for software license, you should decline such job offer without event having a second thought.

The Client is Requesting Your E-mail and Skype Address

This was normal 3 years ago, but now things have changed. You can keep all your communications on the Freelancing site you are attached to. What happens is that, after you are done with the interview, they will ask that you communicate with them via e-mail and Skype. Some will even propose that you work with them directly and F**k the freelancing site that connected both of you. This is very risky depending on the Freelancing site you are using for two reasons; one, you will be violating the terms of service which discourages communication outside the freelancing site and two, you payment will not be protected. If the client fails to pay, your freelancing site will not be responsible for it.

The Client is Interviewing More 10 Other Freelancers in a Row Under the Same Job

When posting a job; the client is required to be specific on the number of freelancers he/she is looking to hire. In this case, you will find that the client is interviewing almost everyone and looking to hire only one. While some are genuine with plans of hiring, most of them will hire a number of the freelancers and deposit a small amount in escrow for each. When the freelancers deliver the first draft, they pay full amount to the one they like and dismiss the rest. If you are among those dismissed, you will feel wasted even if they pay you the small amount they had deposited as a milestone on escrow which in most occasions goes through a dispute.

The Client is Not Sure of What They Want And They Want You to do Something for Them to Gauge

This may work out at the end. With that said, be ready to do the donkey job. The client will only approve your work if they like it. So you may have to develop many drafts (if it was a video your were creating) to show the client. This is a good thing for a new freelancer, but not good for someone who has been in the business for long.

And that is it.
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Until next next time, bye bye and take care.

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