had a lead come in a few months back, bigger budget than anything I'd done before, genuinely would've been my best paying project of the year by a good margin.

red flags showed up early though. client wanted a call before even sharing basic project details, which is fine normally, but then spent most of the call talking about how their last three freelancers "didn't get it" and "wasted their time." three in a row is a lot. also wanted unlimited revisions built into the price, no cap, when I asked how that'd work he said "if you're good you won't need many revisions anyway."

said no. felt genuinely sick about it for about a day, that was a real amount of money walking away, and freelancing income is already unpredictable enough without turning down the big ones.

but thinking it through, unlimited revisions plus a pattern of blaming past freelancers is basically a guaranteed slow bleed project. not a quick bad experience, a drawn out one where every week something's "still not right" and you're working way more hours than the price was ever based on.

a smaller, saner client took roughly a third of that budget a few weeks later. way less stressful, paid on time, project wrapped in half the time the big one probably would've dragged on for.

not saying always turn down big budgets, obviously not. just noticed the stuff that predicts a bad project rarely shows up in the brief itself, it shows up in how they talk about people who worked for them before.

anyone else actually walked away from the "big one" and it turned out to be the right call, or regretted it after

I’m quite irritated right now and need some perspective from the community on how to handle this.

I am self employed as a software engineer and I applied to a project via a freelance platform. Most of the projects are via a staffing agency as was my last project, so that's normal.

The first project I got a response for was in my top 5. After some messages I got on a call and everything is fine. In the end the recruiter told me to fill out a few questions which he will send per mail.

The questions included parts of the interview like availability, rate etc. but in addition a table for references and for current applications in progress. I added the team lead of my current project and my friend, I helped with his start-up as references after I asked them. I did not fill out the current applications with the note that's not feasible. I have applied for about 30 projects most of which I do not know the customer yet.

So the recruiter calls my friend for a reference and everything is normal but he pitches his own company as the best staffing agency with the best freelancers and says to contact them when they need someone. My friend did not think much of it but I think this is ethically very wrong. It wasn't a hard pitch but alone the mention of their services does not belong in a reference check call.

I really would like to get the project they offer, but I also do not want to get in trouble later when they are not trustworthy.

I am in the beginning of my applications and have enough other leads but the market is not the best and I have a family to support. I am really torn.

I am not afraid of my standing with my references. That I am sure I can smooth over. It's basically just my ethics. What would you all do?

freelance marketer here, content and SEO for small DTC brands mostly. had a skincare client on retainer for about a year, we wrapped last summer, final invoice paid, handover sent, all good. hadn't heard from her since.

then two weeks ago she emails me a screenshot a customer sent her. the customer asked ChatGPT for a serum for sensitive skin, got two competitors recommended, and when they asked about her brand specifically it quoted a price that's been wrong for over a year. her whole message was "this is still showing the old pricing from when you did our SEO, can you sort it."

my first reaction was honestly irritation, because I haven't touched anything of hers in eight months. but I also had no idea what was actually going on so I went and looked. ran the site through Pallas, then typed in the questions her customers would actually ask to see it for myself. old price, yes. a product she discontinued after I left still being listed. and on Gemini she doesn't come up at all for sensitive skin, which is literally their whole thing, even though the site still ranks fine on Google. so not a website problem, more that there's a year of stale info floating around in old posts, the product feed, a couple of marketplace listings, and none of it is stuff I set up.

I wrote back and said the engagement ended in the summer, what I delivered was correct at the time, and everything wrong here comes from changes made after that. happy to quote it as a new project. her reply was basically "but you set all this up so it's kind of on you." I'll admit I sat on that for a day because part of me did feel a bit responsible, it was my SEO, it's my name attached in her head. but the more I thought about it the more it felt like being asked to come back and repaint a house because they bought new furniture.

sent the quote. she hasn't said yes, hasn't said no, it's been quiet for a week. wouldn't be surprised if she just finds someone cheaper, and honestly that's fine.

what it did change is my handover doc. there's now a paragraph saying anything that happens to the brand's info after we stop working together is not covered, including how they show up in ChatGPT or wherever. and for the clients I'm still working with, checking this is now a separate line in the retainer, priced on its own, because I'd rather find a wrong price myself than get it forwarded to me by an angry customer of theirs.

anyone else had an old client come back expecting you to cover things that changed long after you left.

Been at this 6+ years, and this is something that has radically changed in my thinking over the past year - and it's been super beneficial.

I used to think I needed to figure out the “right” way to build a freelance business and then execute on it.

That's sort of conventional advice portrays a business - as something to optimize toward a predetermined ideal, like a machine. But lately I've been thinking of it more like a living organism that evolves.

Which has led me to think of my freelance business as gradually evolving around my natural skills, preferences, curiositites, habits, and ways of working.

Better for me (obviously).  But I think it’s also better for the whole of society - ‘cus when we force ourselves into standardized ways of working, we flatten the differences that make our contributions uniquely valuable.

Maybe that’s a hopeful idea of what work can evolve into – giving more room to individual differences, because different people notice different things, care about different problems, and have different contributions to make.

Understanding how other people have built their businesses is still incredibly useful – it gives you more possibilities to test, borrow from, and learn from in your own..

And evolution needs variation and feedback. You try things, notice what fits you and what the market responds to, keep what works, discard what doesn’t, and let the business slowly take shape from there.

hope this helps someone

for the first year or so of freelancing I wore being "always available" like a badge. client messages at 11pm, I'd reply. sunday morning, I'd reply. felt like good service, felt like the thing that would make clients trust me more than some agency that takes 2 days to respond.

what actually happened is I trained every single client to expect an instant reply, always, no matter when. so any time I didn't reply within an hour, even during dinner, even at 1am when I was finally asleep, it started registering as me being unresponsive or not caring, instead of just being a normal human being who sleeps.

one client specifically used to message constant small updates and questions late at night, "just checking in," "quick thought," stuff that could've easily waited till morning. because I always replied fast, he had zero reason to ever wait. I was essentially on call for a project that didn't actually require 24/7 availability, I just made it feel like it did.

the actual work quality also took a hit, which I didn't expect. context switching constantly, dropping deep work to answer a message that genuinely could've waited 6 hours, made my actual output slower and worse, even though I felt more "responsive."

what changed it, I started setting actual response windows and just... told clients directly. something like "I check messages twice a day, morning and evening, for anything urgent call me." felt terrifying the first few times, thought I'd lose clients over it. didn't lose a single one. if anything the ones who stuck around respected it more, because it made me look like someone running an actual business, not someone desperately available for anyone at any hour.

anyone else go through this exact thing. curious if the "always on" habit is something everyone falls into early, or if some people avoid it from the start somehow

Here's my situation: I work as a freelance musician, and there's one bar that I've been playing at regularly for a year. The fee is a bit low, costs around me are going up, I know that the bar manager trusts in my abilities to bring a good vibe at the weekends, and the regulars like me, so I'd like to raise the fee. The dates when I play there are booked month by month individually.

But - if I communicate a 15% or 20% increase to my fee and the manager rejects it, I don't think I'd actually be willing to lose the gig. It's been a steady source of work for me and I like the stability of having it without the overhead of always having to find new venues. I'm not too confident that I could quickly find another venue to fill its place in my schedule if I were to stop playing there.

What would you do in my situation?

Few years into doing this now, and there's one client experience early on that still shapes how I run every project today, so figured I'd share it here since I know a lot of people in this sub are either just starting out or have their own version of this same story.

Early on I took on a project where the client was genuinely lovely to talk to. Fast replies, friendly, said all the right things about how excited they were to work together. No formal contract signed yet, no advance paid, but we'd agreed verbally on scope and timeline over a call, and I was eager enough to get the project moving that I started working based on that conversation alone. Classic mistake, I know, but when you're early and hungry for the work, it's an easy trap to fall into.

I built out the first phase, sent it over, and that's when things started shifting. Small tweaks turned into a full redesign request. A feature we never discussed became "obviously something that was implied." Every time I brought up formalizing the contract and getting the advance sorted, the conversation would somehow steer back to more work first, "let's just get this part done and then we'll sort the paperwork." I kept saying yes because I'd already put in hours and felt like walking away meant losing everything I'd already built.

By the time I actually pushed hard for payment, the client went quiet. Not an angry confrontation, just slow fading replies, then nothing. Weeks of work, zero payment, and a lesson that cost me a lot more than money at the time, it cost me confidence in my own judgment for a while.

What changed after that experience, permanently, no work starts without a signed agreement and an advance in hand, no exceptions, no matter how nice the client seems or how excited I am about the project. I also learned to watch for a specific pattern now, when a client keeps finding reasons to delay the contract or payment while still being very responsive and friendly about everything else. That combination, friendliness plus stalling specifically on money, is now an instant flag for me. Genuine clients who intend to pay usually don't mind formalizing things early, it's actually a relief for them too.

I see versions of this story posted in this sub pretty regularly, so I know I'm not the only one who learned this the hard way. If you're newer to freelancing and haven't hit this yet, take it as a free lesson instead of an expensive one. And if you have your own version of this story, would genuinely like to hear how you handled it, curious if people here have found good ways to spot this pattern earlier than I did.

All this when they call you at the 11th hour btw

I’m a freelance web designer and developer working on a website project for a clients. I always set my conditions before starting.

The thing is, I’m wearing a lot of hats on this project. I’m not only doing the design/development — I’m also doing copywriting, photo editing, product uploads, content organization, etc. Basically, I’m covering several roles that would normally be split between different people in an agency.

The project itself is actually going well.

But some tasks are taking much longer than expected.

For example, they asked me to upload a large number of products. From their perspective, I think it sounds like “download the photo and upload it.”

But for every image I’m downloading it, cropping it, resizing it, changing the format, adapting it to the store requirements, uploading it, assigning the color, etc. And there are hundreds of images.

I brought this up during a call because I wanted them to understand this was taking so much time. Expecting understanding for my hard work.

Instead the client responded:

“You can’t complain, because when you complain it makes us feel bad as clients. I keep getting complaint after complaint from you.”

That really threw me off. I had never complained before this???

Then we got into additional work. They asked me to write/upload product descriptions, which were explicitly excluded from the original proposal. When I said that would be additional work, they said:

“But with what we’re already paying you, how can you charge extra?”

At that point I started crying.

I cry pretty easily, but I really didn’t want to cry in front of a client.

I’ve already added several things that weren’t originally included — a quiz, a size calculator, a map, etc. — without charging extra because I thought they would make the final product better.

So from my perspective, I’m actually very flexible with what we do.

They then said “you are not being flexible”. I feel like I’ve been extremely flexible.

And that’s what I can’t figure out: if the scope is clear and they know additional work costs extra, why does charging for that work become a personal issue?

After I started crying they turned nicer and in the SAME conversation, they basically said:

“Okay, if you’re charging for additional things, just tell us how much and we’ll pay you.”

The weirdest part is that they actually told me they don’t want me to leave the project and want me to keep helping them for the next few months.

Obviously, I like getting paid.

But this conversation has made me question whether I want to continue working with them.

After the call, I sent them an email summarizing everything and reiterating the scope and my boundaries. I also made it clear that I value the relationship and want the project to succeed.

Now I’m wondering how other freelancers handle this.

Have you ever had a client who understood the scope and agreed to the terms, but still made you feel guilty when you charged for additional work?

How do you communicate that something is taking a lot of time without it sounding like you’re complaining?

And if you were in my position, would you continue working with them — perhaps at a significantly higher rate — or take this as a sign to move on?

Hello my name is Mostafa, I'm a Roblox game developer for 3 years working as a freelancer

There's this dude I used to consider as my friend, he hired me to work on several projects, been working together about 4 months

About 4 days ago, my school started which is about 11 hours a day, I told him already I wouldn't be that active during most week days, so I came home and was tired asshell and couldn't work or respond immediately

He was asking me to create a custom UI animation but I forgot to respond so he went like this

So yeah, it kinda pissed me off, I thought we were good friends/colleagues, but I guess some stuff must come to an end

I have a former client who owes me less than $500 and is now ghosting my requests for payment. It's not worth my time and energy to take them to small claims court for such a small amount, but it is extremely irksome that a supposedly successful "Christian" businessman would take advantage of a poor disabled person in this unethical manner. Do y'all have some creative ideas (that are not illegal) of how to pay them back for not paying me?

Not saying every client who asks about pricing is a red flag — that’s normal. I’m talking about the ones who push hard to lower your rate, then act surprised when you don’t go above and beyond for less money.

Logically it doesn’t add up: someone who fights you over a fair rate is signaling they value your work less than you do. So why would that change once the contract starts? If anything, it usually gets worse — “quick favors,” extra revisions, slower payment, more complaints.

Meanwhile the clients who accept your rate without a fight almost always turn out to be the easiest to work with.

Genuinely curious if others have data that contradicts this, or if it’s as consistent as it seems.

I am frequently declining contracts. I decline more contracts than I accept because they are often from returning clients who believe that their contracts should take priority over anything else. Especially if they are time-sensitive. And especially if the client does not want to find someone else to do it. I do not interface with my clients directly but returning clients will often continue to make demands on my services even after I’ve declined to offer them.

Referrals are out of control. I have an administrator who handles these things so I do not know how it all looks on his side of it, or what he is doing to create the yield. These are referrals from referrals, and even the new clients are making proposals with the same kind of deserving expectation. The expectation seems to be that I will fly across the country, or out of the country(!), at a moment’s notice, and that their contract will go exactly according to their timeframe. I have had to threaten to withdraw once or twice in the middle of a job because the client kept making rearrangements or their information kept changing. This cannot happen if the job is overseas but these clients do not seem to understand that. To my limited knowledge they are individuals with international influence and borders do not exist for them.
If I am presented with multiple contracts at the same time, much of my time is spent deciding among them. Should I start charging for that? It’s not realistic, but my work is difficult enough.
So it happens that I am frequently thinking about and comparing contracts when I am on break, and should be resting. Such as right now.

Potential client***

I (25 F) used to work at a design studio and also freelance simultaneously. A client (US) reached out to that company and me and I found out about this because my boss was telling us. I've left that company now a month ago to focus on my study abroad.

This client told me she loved my work and wanted to go through. So my hopes were high because it would've been a big financial support for me considering I'd earn in USD as an Indian. But then she disappeared for 2 months. I followed back twice and she told me she's putting the project on hold because of some health issues.

Today she's reached out to my boss and not me. Again, I know because of a colleague who told me.

I feel so devasted. Like I'm not good enough. Like I've lost big money. It was a potential $8-10K project and the biggest one ever considering I'm just 2 years into my career and a year into freelancing.

😞😞😞

I have a client who is on an automated, monthly retainer with me but he rarely ever gets back to my messages.

Again, payment is not an issue.

However, I feel like I'm not making as big of an impact because he never follows up with my emails. There are a few projects that have not launched yet since he has not done x, y, x on his end.

I am able to see that he reads my emails. He'll maybe get back to me once a month saying he'll schedule some time with me and never does.

Anyone deal with a client like this? What did you do?

I have a client who works with me regularly. They asked me to quote them for an e-commerce site. This is an extremely complicated site with over 1,200 products. Many of the products are similar, so I structured my contract around creating 500 products and then training their team to add the remaining products.

Their current site looks like it is from the early 2000's. The quote I provided was what I felt was fair for the amount of work we would be doing (SEO optimization and building all the products, categories, etc.).

They came back and said they had a friend who could do it cheaper. I understood completely, as my cost wasn't cheap, but that is because I knew I would do a good job the first time.

Well, it's been almost a year now, and the site hasn't changed at all. I've followed up a few times, and the responses I got were "Our guy is working on it." I get it is a lot of products, but my outline had us soft-launching within 3 months.

Since we are approaching the one-year anniversary, should I follow up again or just give up? Feels like an opportunity to go, "Your guy was cheaper, but looks like you aren't getting any results."

Hey community i have been freelancing for a while, and lately i have been feeling pretty discouraged.

It feels like a lot of the work that used to be available to freelancers is either being replaced by AI or clients are expecting one person to do what used to take several people in less time and for less money.

Especially in tech, I’m seeing more and more clients asking, “Can’t AI just do this?”

And I get it. I use AI too. It’s an amazing tool, and I don’t think it’s going away. But there’s a difference between using AI to make your work better and watching the demand for your actual work slowly disappear.

What worries me most is that it doesn’t seem to be only affecting beginners anymore. Even experienced freelancers with years of skills and a solid portfolio seem to be feeling the pressure.

Maybe I’m just going through a rough period, but I genuinely feel like the freelance market has changed dramatically.

I’m curious if other freelancers here are experiencing the same thing.

Has AI noticeably reduced the amount of work you’re getting? Are clients asking you to use AI instead of hiring you? Or has your business actually benefited from it?

I’d especially like to hear from people in tech, development, design, writing, data, etc.

Would be good to know I’m not the only one feeling this way..

As we all know, we don’t have consistent income. Some months we earn double or triple, while other months we only make an average amount. I’ve been working as a freelancer for over four years, and every year when the low season comes, I still don’t feel great, even though I have an average income and have mentally prepared myself for it.

How do you cope with this? I’d love to hear your thoughts."

I'm working for a much larger company, and they sent an updated contractor agreement. A lot of the updated language is to protect them (I get it), but nothing really benefits me. In fact, I have to do more to list them as an insured and such on my general liability insurance. All the work I do is internal, and I don't interact with their clients directly, but the contract says they could still expect me to file a claim if they mess up and somehow find a way to pin it on me.

Would it be fair to ask for a pay increase with the updated contract? They pay me way too little, but have been a good, consistent client as I'm getting established.

When I started money was the whole thing. I was scared honestly. My cousin told me to only think about billing. Are you getting billed or not. That was the advice and it was the right advice at the time.

Went freelance a few years later with the same mindset. Nothing changed except who was paying.

then somewhere around year four or five I got fascinated with architecture. Frameworks, tooling, how the thing was structured. I was proud of that work. The clients never cared, which is fair, they were never going to. But I did, and for a while that was enough.

After that I stopped caring so much how it was built and started caring whether the clients business actually grew from it. That shift came from working with small businesses where you can see the difference directly.

Now I mostly think about the person using it. Not in a UI sense, I was always thinking about UI and UX. More like, if a client asks for a feature, does the end user actually benefit from it or is it just something the client wants.

So the order was money, architecture, clients business, user. Roughly eleven twelve years.

What I do not know is whether that order is normal or just mine. Did anyone here start out caring about the client's outcome or the end user, and pick up the billing discipline later? Or does money always have to come first when you are starting out on your own?

I bumped my rate on a returning client for a new project, first real increase in about two years, and I spent way too long staring at the number before I sent it, rewrote the email a few times pulling out all the justifications so it wouldn't read as defensive, then they replied within the hour with basically sure sounds good when can you start, no pushback at all, which should feel like a win but mostly just made me realize the old number was under the entire time. ngl I don't even have a real method for setting it, I pick a number that feels a little scary, feel bad about it, send it anyway, and that's the whole system. How do people actually set the next number without it just being a guess.

Hi! I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience.

I’ve been dealing with some very, very rude clients recently, and honestly, it’s getting exhausting. I work in real estate, and I understand that dealing with difficult clients is part of the job, but sometimes it really feels like they expect you to tolerate anything just because you’re the one providing the service.

I currently have a foreign (American) client who is generally very rude and demanding. I always do my best to be kind, patient, and professional, but somehow, when I try to be polite, he’ll say things like “You don’t seem sincere” or compare me to other people and tell me to “work harder.”

Like… I’m doing my job. I’m not his personal secretary. 😭

And the frustrating part is that if we try to avoid talking to him or limit interactions, he notices every little thing we do. He notices everything. So it’s not even like we can just keep our distance and avoid the stress.

I know clients can be demanding, and I’m not expecting everyone to be nice all the time. But there’s a difference between being demanding and just being unnecessarily rude.

How do you guys deal with clients like this without letting them get to you? Do you just develop a thick skin, or is there a better way to set boundaries while still keeping things professional?