Freelance Design tricks - How to get away with murder in the workplace
Do you want to become a copywriter? Want to know the top four tricks that can get you away with murder in your freelance design workplace? Well, then this article is perfect for you!
This blog post will be a deep and thorough investigation into how far freelancers can go before it starts to look like they're pickpocketing or stealing from their clients. These are just some of the techniques used by people who are desperate for a little more money. And these techniques work on many clients - maybe even yours!
This article will be broken up into two parts. In the first part, we will take a look at the four most common ways of getting away with murder and in the second part, we will investigate some of these techniques in details.
1. Leaving out vital information
This is one of the most daring techniques I know of. While it doesn't help you get more money per hour, nor does it increase the number of hours you work; it does however, help you appear to be extremely busy and therefore worthy of a raise! It involves simply leaving out vital information from your design that your client needs to see.
For example, if you are working on an 8-page long document and your client tells you to create a cover page, don't do it! Saying no is really easy and you will be able to get away with it. By doing this, the client will think that the information on the cover page is urgent and therefore will ask you for it - without knowing that all this information is already on your computer.
I know this sounds crazy but trust me; it works. I've been using this technique for years and I have never had my clients complain about not receiving the information they need. For some of you, the thought of doing this may be scary but I recommend that you give it a try (just ignore those who say it's not ethical - they're probably just lazy freelancers who are jealous of your hard work).
2. Saying "Oh, I'd love to do that for you but ..."
This technique is also known as 'turning down a job without actually turning it down'. This involves saying 'no' to your client but in a way that makes them think they can convince you otherwise. This way, they will throw all their weight into convincing you and offer you a higher price or even more hours.
For example, your client contacts you and goes 'I need you to design this cover page, can you do it?' - 'Sure' - you answer happily. The next time she contacts you, she says 'im so sorry to bother you again but we need that cover page now!' - 'Yes, I know', you say.
If I've said it once, I'll say it again: this is a trustworthy way of getting rid of clients who are desperate for work. Being in a bad economy and having clients who are willing and able to pay more won't make freelancers feel motivated at all (and neither will if they're just thinking about their own financial gain).
3. Providing your clients with confusing information
If you're like me, you hate complicated people and if your client is one of them, this is the perfect job for you!
You see, these are people who are always trying to understand something that's clearly not worth the effort. When they contact you, they will give you a bunch of instructions and details that will leave you confused. The idea here is to try to confuse them back so that they remain confused throughout the duration of the project. For example: 'the logo has to be 8 sizes in height with a pink background and blue text' - 'can I have it in JPEG format?' - 'what? no!' - 'okay ...' - 'oh, and ... the logo has to be in every single font we have!' (the client will say a bunch of stuff, you say 'yeah' and ask for clarification about what he/she is saying) - 'can it be animated?' - 'what? now?' - ....
See how this works? Give it a try! It's not hard to pull off either. Just give them something that looks like work but when they try to confirm it with you, don't respond. You've got them right where you want them!
4. Giving your client fake information
This is where you give your client the information that he/she needs and then make him/her think that he/she has to pay for more work than he/she asked for. For example: "The office manager just called me to tell me that the president wants an order form in pink with a red background. Can you do it?" - "Of course!" - 'What about this?' - 'sure, as long as it's not too expensive and I get all the other graphics I need. I'll have to add an extra day of work for this. It's gonna be about $XXX a day.'
And there you have it! The perfect way to get more money from your clients. You can use this technique over and over again as often as possible, especially if you're working on a large project or if your client has a lot of cash on his/her hands.
I would like to take the opportunity here to remind all of my readers that I am not an expert in the field of ethics. All I've written here is based on my own experience and this is not to be taken as legal advise.
Back to top
In the second part of the article, we will go in-depth into some of these 'dirty little secrets'. By that, I mean we will take a closer look at each of these techniques in order to help your clients understand what you're up to. Some of you may already be using one or more of these techniques (especially the first three). So it's likely you're already aware of what I'm talking about here.
Conclusion:
I'm sorry if this article has let you down, but I am a freelancer and it's in my best interest to make sure that you don't get more money than me. Here are some of the things I've been doing over the years:
*When my clients tell me how much per hour they will pay, I tell them that this won't work for me and then we start negotiating. When we reach an agreement, I charge them per project instead of by the hour (so if they want to hire me for $100/hour and we decide to change it to $300/project - do you see where I'm going with this?).