I worked as freelance developer for 4 years. In those times, I learnt a lot about developing, but I also learnt many soft skills. For example, how can you negotiate the budget? How can you discuss deadlines? How can I communicate goals? How can I understand the features we need for any project? And so on.
However, every client I worked for was different. They had different timing, communications skills, deadlines, versatility and tolerance. Every of each had its own culture.
There are some patterns I have noticed, I list the most typical ones here:
Versatility and tolerance, but a lack of organization
It was one of my first clients. I made landing pages for them. He was a nice guy who I talked to, but he was always in a hurry. Therefore, it was always missing assets, definitions and goals. I started an “admin” once, without knowing the front user design because it wasn’t designed yet. I believe that they hadn’t thought about it yet. We were always adjusting deadlines, and sometimes, something it had planned for March we finally completed in July. Other times you were working on a project, but suddenly you needed to start a another one-more important-and the first one was delayed.
However, they were versatile and tolerant, and they always were in good mood.
They sometimes were late with payments, but it wasn’t bureaucracy, they just forgot. So, I had to give them a call, and they transferred me right away. Other times they made a payment in advance; not even knowing the budget, and they ended up with money in their favor in their account. ‘Keep it for future jobs’, they always said.
Despite their disorganization, I liked working for them. I could understand they were running all the time, and they did always their best to apologize, or to cheer you up.
Extremely detailed
They were super organized. They had their deadlines defined months ago, and even one or two weeks for backup. However, they always became late because they never finish the product. They always had mini changes to the product. ‘What if you change the background color red to a little bit lighter?’ ‘What if you change this text?’ What if you change this photo?’ ‘Put this video instead’. ‘Perhaps, the button should be moved a little bit up’.
I am not saying that kinds of things weren't important, but you need to deploy to figure it out. Once the project is in production, then you can start the next phase, that is the analysis and finally fixing all bugs and making the improvements you want.
If you never go to production, you will never know what your audience thinks about it. If you asked for finishing the project ‘Just one more fix’, they said. But the budget remained the same, and I couldn’t organize the other projects I had, because I never know when I will finish this.
You needed a lot of patience to work with them.
Good money, but it always needs to be done for yesterday.
They had a lot of bureaucracy. The feedback was always late, and they always were adding features at the last moment. Besides, they were not versatile with deadlines. I remember telling them I needed one week to apply all the feedback. However, feedback came two or three days before the deadline, and you needed to run to finish because the deadline didn’t change at all. ‘The president was busy. He could not see it until now. You can charge extra hours, but we need to finish on time’, They used to tell me. Of course, I always did it. I had to run, to work at night, at weekends, or moving other projects to finish it on time.
However, money was very good, and this client made me have an extra to stop for vacations or bonuses. That’s the reason why I liked them. Despite running, I kept them till the end.
Clients have pros and cons. To decide who to work with, you just need to think on the pros and cons and make as a logical decision as you can. There are some clients or projects you would want so much to work with, so your emotions may confuse you. But this is also good. When you like the project you are working on, you stress less. You feel happier, and that is also important. Because you will spend more time working in your life than on anything else. Try to enjoy it!
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