There are two types of freelancers when it comes to projects:
- The type that realizes it’s about their reputation and if they don’t finish the job they don’t get paid. So they get it done.
- The type that expects to be paid / keep their money even if they fail and don’t get the project done. “Because I worked on it.”
Which are you?
Tornado prefers to work with the first type. Are there any other types? I’ve worked with a lot of people over the years and sadly a large number fit into personality #2.
5 responses to “Two types of freelancers”
I definitely consider myself to be the first type…
The only time I expect to be paid for an unfinished job is if the reason it was unfinished was due to someone else dropping the ball.
What about the “in-between” type, the ones that finish the job a couple of weeks after the deadline?
Although I am very annoyed with myself about being like this, I have to admit that this is the category I fall into. I did start working on this aspect, but it’s v v v hard to stop procrastinating and hitting the job with both barrels straight from the beginning. I tend to think that “there is enough time” only to realize that I’m 2 days from the deadline and I’m still fiddling with plugins and other “minors”… Having said that, “GTD”:http://del.icio.us/tag/gtd has helped a lot in this respect… I am becoming more TO-DONE and less TO-BE-DONE.
Btw, nice site guys. With a little work on those h2 nav headings, search form and Tornado logo (make it BW @ least), you can have a cracker here :P. (DON’T pick on my site because it’s Fall’04 design… and Winter’04 content…)
I’m the third type. Tell me a sob story about your church finances, but be committed to writing quality content, and be relatively hands-off in the design process, and I’ll do your site for free. For me, it’s more about getting quality content on a site. I find it really hard to want to work for a client who doesn’t know what they want to say. So, I’m so blown away when I find one that does, I’m more likely to lower prices for them.
I definately agree with you, Tommy. You fit into category #1.
Geri – You have a good point and I think you bring something up that we’re all guilty of at some point. Thanks for the comments about BrainFuel. Yeah, black and white might be a good idea for the Tornado icon. We’ll see. We’re also hoping to bring back the random header picture.
Nathan – Good points. There is also quite a bit of fun in doing projects for free because you know the site will end up great (who knows what your friend might get otherwise) and no money pressure.