So my freelance affair continues and, after a week of sending tens, if not hundreds of "bids" or applications to prospective clients looking to hire contractors to perform their tasks (unfortunately, most of the time, for mere peanuts) I landed my first gig! Woopee!
Now, before I begin to describe my experience, I must inform you that I am working mostly off of odesk.com at the moment, as this seems to be the simplest and more active of the bunch. There are many other websites to try but I am just learning, so, slow is fine.
Okay. So I got my first job. Interstingly, it was a job where I was the only contractor who bid: a gentleman needs 3 unique telemarketing scripts for selling mobile apps to businesses to expand their marketing reach. Simple enough: I have first-hand experience in something like this, I'm the perfect candidate. He doesn't offer a whole lot of money, but not peaunts, either. I'm looking at earning $15 per script. I'm satisfied.
His initial response to my application was that he would "try" me by paying individually for each script (meaning, he had a total sum that he wished to pay. Contractors then can bid lower, higher, or even to his request and then the client will choose the best contractor proposal based upon his needs and budget). He would pay me up front for the first script and so on. Great, we were in total agreement.
So, I write up what I think will be a killer first script. I don't stop there: I throw in some manager notes for the training manager who will be explaining the campaign to the agents who will be doing the actual calling and a brief letter to the CEO/founder who hired me in the first place.
Anyway, get that done, send that to him, first script complete, then wait. He reviews it and loves it. Success! Wonderful. He says, great, go ahead and continue with the other two. I wait perhaps fifteen minutes for the next script payment to be recieved to my account. Never comes. So I message him. He says he will pay for the next 2 scripts AFTER they are completed and states his reason for this is that this is simply how business is typically done on odesk.com, quote: "Usually, people do not pay for work up front but after it is complete on odesk." Hmm. Now that's confusing. Because in this situation, it was the CLIENT, not I, the contractor, who stated, "I wish to make three installments for each script; I will pay you the 33% up front, you write the first script, if I like it, etc." I also added in my reply that paying upfron for each subsequent script should then not be a problem for him, once he has the first completed script in hand.
I explained that I understood normal odesk procedure but that I become very nervous WHENEVER an employer or client suggests one deal, we agree on it and then changes half way through. These exact circumstances are what made me so sick of the show cattle industry. And here, with no one to really govern anyone, hey, anything goes, right?
So I stated my reasons for standing my ground and said we can discuss it more so we can get the job finished and go our seperate ways and have not heard back from him since Friday evening. Now, he may be away fro the weekend with his family: I hope this is the case and that we can complete our business on Monday.
But basically, I'm left with two options. I can write the scripts and send them to him and wait for his final payment. This would be the easiest to do, because he already paid a portion up front. My problem with this option is that he already has one script and I'm at his mercy now to get paid the rest while he is holding all the completed work. Not a very favorable situation for me.
The other option is what I am curently doing: waiting. I have not begun work on his second script nor will I until we at least have some kind of short discussion on the subject and resolve the discrepancy. My reason for this is mostly on principals: I become vary wary of any businessman or woman who states the deal to the contractor, they both agree upon it and THEN decides they want to change it half way through, and acts as if it was the contractor who suggested such a deal and not them. To me, that's shady. That sounds like the old slate-of-hand trick. I'm not buying.
Especially on $15 scripts. I could see if he were paying $100 per script. Because then, I would have made it 100% clear that the only way a script was getting written was if the money was put up FIRST.
What do you think? Am I wrong here? I am not sure so I have dealt with it using simple logic: I have no money in my hand, which was agreed upon. I can spend my time looking for new jobs that may or may not pay or spend my time completing a clients job who I now have reasonable suspicion he is planning not to pay out on.
Are you starting to see the slippery world of freelance writing and business in general? It's always a treat. But also, it is always a great learning experience. I'm not sure what the correct course is here but for such minimal amounts of money, if you cannot pay up front, I feel there is more going on or you are just cheap. Feel free to leave your thoughts and any suggestions and good luck in your freelancing adventures!
