Did I make a mistake by charging a client for a Month's worth or work?

Hi everyone.

April 13th: A client contacted me on Facebook Marketplace. We discussed all the details about the project. It was a 4 story house with a Roof Garden. He was only interested in the facade, exterior lighting and the roof garden, that was the job.

He sent photos of the house in it’s current state, which consisted of the low level and one floor. He sent blueprints with the desired final structure.

He agreed on paying me 20% in advance to start the project.

April 15th: I started the project and everything went mostly fine up until May 9th. His response rate was usually every two or three days, but I guess that was fine.

May 9th: I sent him some more images with questions regarding plumbing. He acknowledged my questions and told me he would meet with his Architect to discuss the project and my questions and that he would come back to me later.

May 16th: He sent me a message asking me to wait a little more, he was still on it.

May 21st: I sent him a message asking if there have been any developments. Next day he answers no, nothing for the moment.

June 3rd: I sent a follow up message. Next day he answers, “nope nothing yet, let me check”.

June 4th: I politely asked him to pay another %, which added to what he already paid me, would make for 50% of the total cost of the project. I explained to him that for every week that passes without any progress, it represents a loss for me. And that I’m totally available and ready to continue with the project once he’s able to.

It’s been 3 weeks and I haven receive any answer, so it is safe to assume I’ve lost this client :smiling_face_with_tear:

What do you guys think?.

I would like to get feedback on this, because believe it or not, this is the first time this happens to me in my 9 years of working as a Freelancer.

Yeah, that’s what happens. That’s why you charge 50% up front

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I agree with Joseph, 50% upfront should be the norm. It weeds out anybody who’s not serious.

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Well, how much actual work did you really spend on this ?
Did you keep working while you where waiting for his answers ?

Also in the end was that a real issue meaning you refused other jobs, or you have to make extra hours to get to the end of the months or it doesn’t change a lot ?

First, maybe you might get news from them eventually… And on my side this happened twice on my career, while it’s always frustrating to my that wasn’t a big of a deal, and I moved on to my next gig. I tend to take job as learning opportunities and I never had to really worry about money in the end…

Now IDK how that works in your country but you can always sign some kind of contract beforehand that covers you in cases like these, but in the meantime I don’t know what you have to do when people don’t respect the contract…

Currently I don’t do freelancing anymore, but when that was the case I tried my best to make my clients happy, so they tent to get back to me for other gigs and once in a while they introduced me new clients as well…
When working like that it’s easier to build a network of thrust and therefore you generally don’t have to worry too much about getting paid…
But of course when you have a new client that mutual thrust needs to be built… Anyway, if that append one or two times more I’d start to worry and look for more guarantee !

For “project fees” I do 50% up front, 25% at client approval and 25% on delivery. However I have never been as happy as when I just charge hourly (payable at the end of each week)…it’s awesome!!!

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I’m always wary of this because I don’t have the incentive to stay on track for whatever work time was decided upfront. It kinda encourages me to “polish creep” if you know what I mean. And I don’t mean a man from eastern europe who stalks you. How do you manage it ?

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For the hourly you mean? I typically have a very good pre-analysis round where I really try to think about what something’s going to take in terms of work. Then I discuss with the client my estimate and we reach a consensus. Say 10 hours of work at my hourly rate.

So I strive to stay within that amount and get the job done reasonably well. If I go over by say an hour or two at most, I typically won’t charge the client overage. However if the client starts getting very picky, or asks for a lot of changes, or if things are way more complicated than it was originally assumed, then I notify the client asap of the situation and we go from there.

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Alright ok, that makes sense. Thanks !