I work with a lot of freelancers. Whenever I engage a new one, I lay down three ground rules.
At a glance, the rules are self-contradicting:
- Be open for feedback, but take ownership.
- No surprises, but surprise me
- Don’t be calculative, but be very calculative
Let me elaborate.
1. Be open for feedback, but take ownership
Be open for feedback… Leave the ego aside. Reach out when facing doubts or making decisions before moving to the next phase. Bad experiences include receiving fully-developed design routes — an identity, a UI, a video — as a take-it-or-leave-it scenario. Feedback then becomes intensive reworking. Equally, if you’ve overestimated your capabilities midway through, say so early: “This brand architecture job is way more complex than anything I’ve done before. I need help.”
…but take ownership. I avoid high-maintenance freelancers — the type who ping every 30 minutes asking for decisions on whether the colour should be C100Y80 or C100Y90, or whether an image should be centrally cropped or 10 pixels to the right. I am an OCD who has learned to let go of smaller decisions. You should too.
2. No surprises, but surprise me.
No surprises… A freelancer relationship is about us, together, delivering a solution to a paying client on an agreed deadline. The worst case: ghosting — suddenly not responding when the deadline is approaching. Other nasty surprises include inferior output because a required plugin turned out to be pirated or outdated.
Life happens. It’s fine to drop out of a project midway when something unexpected occurs — the key is to be honest and responsible. One freelancer once introduced a friend to take over a project because she had a family emergency. That was a nice thing to do.
…but surprise me. Don’t just tick boxes. In every job there’s an approach the client or I might have missed. A recent example: an identity project where the deliverables included an invoice design. Instead of just delivering a design, the freelancer asked what accounting system the client used — Quickbooks, Zoho, Tally — and suggested customising the built-in invoicing template instead. “Every invoice is generated from the accounting software’s template. There’s no point designing a standalone invoice.” That’s the kind of thinking that makes a collaborator worth keeping.
3. Don’t be calculative, but be very calculative
Don’t be calculative… Scope changes. One revision becomes three. One option becomes two alternates. And occasionally, when the project is supposedly over, the legal team adds a disclaimer module and everything is suddenly on fire.
Note the “everything is on fire” part. The client is under extreme stress. This is the worst time to start negotiating additional fees — nobody has the mental space for it. Work through the crisis first. Leave the money talk for later.
…but be very calculative. Before issuing the invoice, be very calculative. If the scope increased, the amount can increase — just be fair, and I will pay without negotiating. The catch is that word fair. If the final amount is unreasonably high, I will still pay, but that’s probably the end of our working relationship.
Similarly, if extra support was provided to help you complete the job — a bail-out to meet deadlines — bill a lesser amount.
The nicest experience I’ve had: a freelancer who invoiced less than agreed. “I didn’t have to do that much — I thought the job was more complex when I quoted. This is a more reasonable amount.”
Engaging a freelancer is like hiring a caterer for a party. The same three rules apply. Discuss the menu and costs with me. Don’t make me manage your suppliers. Tell me early if the roast chicken won’t happen — and what you’re replacing it with. Don’t renegotiate the day before the event because I added 15 people to the 100-person guest list. But do bill me fairly for the extra effort. And if I had to hire extra waiters because yours quit on you, compensate me for that.
One last point. I am engaging a freelancer for a specific skill set to accomplish a specific task — like seeing a skin specialist, calling a plumber, or hiring a caterer. Freelancing is not employment. The difference? I am obligated to invest in the growth and well-being of an employee. A freelance engagement is a business transaction.
Freelancing is not the beginning of a mentor-mentee relationship.
When a freelancer says “I’m excited to start because I can learn from you” — that worries me.
