: I have a client who keeps asking for quotations but never follows through I'm fairly new to freelancing and have an issue that I'm not sure how to tackle. I'm still struggling to get paid

@Sherry646

Something to consider: Charging a consultation fee then offering half or all of the fee as a credit when the contract is signed.

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@Berryessa866

This is something some people do. I don't know you, the client or anything about the situation so it's hard to tell but it is likely one of two scenarios.


Your client is indecisive and not very serious about her ideas. An idea pops in to her head and the first thing she does is arrange a meeting with you to run through the the project, get advice and gauge how viable the project is taking in to account costs and timescales etc.

or...
Your client has no intention of using you at all. I know people who will get quotes and ideas from cheaper and less experienced designers just so they can go to someone more experienced and say "hey, this person quoted me X amount" as a bargaining tool *.


In either case, it is not doing you any good.

Obviously there is no obligation to follow through with a quote and go ahead with the project but if someone is consistently asking for quotes, taking up face-to-face time and never following through with the project, that is wasting your time. Time is money, and you could spend that time better by looking for other work.

Be direct and explain the situation to this person. There's no need to be rude or too blunt about it but they may not realise they are doing anything wrong. If this person is a decent and reasonable person they will understand. Explain that you are not going to have face-to-face meetings unless they are serious about the project. If they want a meeting just to run through ideas and get your advice—charge for your time. That will end any time wasting (or you'll get paid for the time, so you win either way). If the client isn't understanding, they aren't worth having as a client.



* If you are on the other end of this, pay no attention. What you charge is what you charge. Some room for negotiation on price is fine, but not as a response to "this person does it cheaper".

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@Yeniel278

Being afraid of ruining reputation and wanting to earn money is natural for freelancer.

First, there is no reputation to ruin. From my experience clients like her use people as a free idea well, brainstormers etc. What she can do to ruin your reputation? Say that you are hard to work with when there is no money involved? I've seen more freelancers ruining their relationships with customers by taking more than they could chew and loosing customers in the process than people who had bad rep based on how willingly they are to work for free (actually there is zero people I know or heard about that have such rep).

Second, and most difficult, is to let loose a "possibly income". If you have been "working" with her just bill the hours you wasted and see how much you didn't earned and calculate how much you would need to bill her now to compensate your previous loss. It will help you visualise what kind of money YOU didn't get.

Because, from a freelancer point of view, in such cases you loose two things.
First is the money you didn't get for the work you've done. (yes, consultations is also work we do and should get paid for)
And second, you wasted your time. Time you could spend on self improving, doing personal works, honing skills and, most important, looking for paying customers.

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@Deb5748823

If I were you, I would deffinetely tell her that I'm working on another project and if she wants to discuss anything she'd have to first gather any materials relating to it and then in one single E-MAIL describe what she wants and send you those materials.
That will show that she is serious enough. Describe you EMAIL request with certain changes you've made to your work process and that now you gather all projects through e-mail so no details get lost in translation. (sorry for the long sentence)

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