Tuesday 24 May 2011

Client Experience #1 - Avoiding Traps

This is a brief story about one of my first clients and hopefully this can help you avoid a similar situation.  Out of respect, the anonymity of clients and companies should be maintained.

So this was one of my first jobs that involved a face-to-face interaction with the client, as opposed to online work.  I found the job through craigslist, and the client had a officespace in one of the trendiest areas in town, so I was excited.

When I finally got past the intercoms, and security clearance I was in a small office, very professional and fully equipped with computers and graphic design paraphernalia.  I felt at ease knowing the place seemed legit and my client and his assistant were friendly from the start.

After negotiations and contract signing I walked out with a color hard-copy of the material to be translated (just a few pages) and a really good impression.  The initial pages were a test, no doubt, to see if I was capable of the 100 page job that would follow.

The only thing was they did not have experience with translation, so we agreed on a flexible rate of $7 to $10 per page depending on content.  $10 the max that a page could be worth, and since most of the material was text saved as graphics, more or less text could appear on any given page.  So far so good, in fact I thought I had struck an awesome deal since some pages didn't have more than a couple paragraphs. 

Fast forward to my first milestone for the project, which was agreed as 100 pages for roughly $800 and more to come (estimated 10 pages).  I didn't think much of this and was happy to keep on going, and negotiate the additional pages later.  Terrible mistake.

Funny things started happening once I started the actual project.  On the first meeting to receive the milestone payment (33%) for the work, I was getting praise for my work.  I was asked if I could also translate Italian, and that (he) was going to be taking the presentation that I translated to said country, and that there would be tons of new clients, translation opportunities, etc.

Awesome.  I walked out with cash in hand, with the idea that I had secured a solid client.  Fast forward to a few weeks later.

I get paid the entire amount for the 100 pages agreed, and then the "remaining" pages arrive.  I won't go into detail, but let's just say the agreed pages went from 10 to 50, and the content changed drastically to extremely technical content that should be worth much more money.  At this point figured out how to extract the text from the PDF's using inDesign, did a word count only to find I was getting paid .03c per word on a job for a multi-million dollar franchise for pennies.

The very contents that I was translating were extremely sensitive in nature, due to competitors and such, which in turn prompted me to sign contracts.  In other words, I realized what had happened, my client had provided graphic design (outsourced) and translation (outsourced) and increased the value of his work tremendously.  In fact I doubt he did much other than put his signature on the file after underpaying freelancers to do the graphic design, wording and translation.  Such is the way of the business though.

To add insult to injury, the client who was friendly and willing to pay upfront ended up trying to catch me for my word on the "estimate" for 10 pages.  In other words, he expected to pay for 10 extra pages, and receive 40 pages of even more compressed/complex content than the original 100 pages claiming a "misunderstanding".

Finally when I went to receive the final payment with the adjustments, I was confronted about the charges and had a 1 hour negotiation battle over a $30 difference. I refused to leave the office until they agreed on it, after being guilt tripped to think I was overcharging.  Final pay .03c per word over 150 pages, which I settled for.  Unbelievable.

In short, the client played opposum at the start and lured me in.  It was my own fault to agree per page instead of per word.  Lesson learned.  The other lesson is to state terms that if additional content is added, it may carry a different rate dependent on the content.  ESPECIALLY when the content has nothing to do with the previous material.

Another trap to beware, and this is really common, is the "promise more work".  I fell for this one nicely here since the story made sense to me : client needs presentation to travel, will show other clients etc.  But after years of experience, those promises are usually empty and I have heard them several times.  It sucks because as most freelancers know, finding work can be difficult and rarely do you turn down new jobs right?  So some employers will "dangle" future jobs and promises (sometimes true), but beware of this motivational ploy.

That about sums it up, no edits.

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