4 types of problem clients: how to avoid them as a freelancer

A competent freelancer always knows what to do if a problem client contacts him. Just a couple of leading questions and the customer receives either the consent of the contractor or his refusal. The fact is that odious characters rarely come across among clients, and if you find an approach to it, then the work will not cause problems. Therefore, problem clients come across only to stupid freelancers. Connectivity is one of the key skills of remote workers, and this skill should be used to 100%.

Of course, the topic of problem customers is inexhaustible. But with experience comes the understanding that there are not so many situations in which negative character traits of clients are manifested. It is characteristic that the actions of the freelancer himself lead to conflict. But there are four types of problem clients that are most common. Next, we will dwell on them in more detail and figure out how a freelancer can avoid cooperation with them.

First type: economical

Every freelancer at least once in his life heard the phrase “We really want to work with you, but we can only spend …” Then a small fee is announced and the performer refuses to work. Often, these clients are very pushy, and often they manage to convince the contractor to do the job for a small price.

The best way out of this situation is not to work with greedy customers. If the client claims that his budget is small, then most likely he does not respect and does not appreciate the skills of a freelancer, so the same attitude will be for the work done. Not only will such a customer make you work for a penny, but he also torments you with endless alterations and edits. Therefore, it is better not to contact such clients.

There is one more effective advice for cooperation with greedy clients – conduct a control test. Ask for an advance. A cynic client will not agree, so he needs to politely refuse, but a newcomer can agree to an advance payment. Such customers are quite normal, you can work with them.

Second type: indecisive

The phrase “I like what you did, but let’s try to find a better solution” belongs to insecure clients. They can turn the life of a freelancer into a nightmare. But you still have to work. Indecisive customers, while presenting a problem, are not a disaster. You just need to change the approach.

Dealing with such clients is quite easy. Everything needs to be agreed in advance. All conditions should be extremely clear, without muddy wording. If the number of edits is not discussed at the start, then what is called the spreading of the project boundaries will begin. The work will take much longer than the freelancer expected, and they will pay him as agreed. Therefore, at the beginning of cooperation, it is necessary to draw up a clear and extremely clear contract.

Third type: silent

There is such a variety of customers as silent ones. At the beginning of the collaboration, everything looks fine, but over time, he stops responding to messages and disappears from view. Then he may reappear and disappear again for an indefinite time.

This happens because the freelancer does not work with him directly, but contacts with an intermediary. Therefore, there are long pauses – the manager waits for the authorities to show the preliminary work, listens to all the recommendations, and only then passes them on to the freelancer. To save yourself from cooperation with “silent” clients, you can register on the freelance exchange Author24, which has been operating in the educational services market since 2012. The main advantage of the site is that performers and clients contact each other without intermediaries, and this significantly saves the freelancer’s time and the customer’s money, so Author24 is also popular because it offers a decent level of payment.

It often happens that the client falls silent at the last stage of the work, when the material needs to be checked and paid for. You can fight the silent ones only by drawing up an agreement. It must indicate the deadline and the period during which the client is obliged to respond to the requests of the contractor. Otherwise, downtime begins, and he physically cannot take on new projects, because he does not know when the silent client will decide to answer him. This will directly affect the freelancer’s income.

Hint: A silent client cannot be detected. Therefore, the best solution is to indicate in the contract what the price is for a day of downtime for a freelancer. The presence of such a condition makes silent clients more talkative. By the way, on the Author24 portal there is an opportunity to draw up a cooperation agreement and protect yourself from material losses.

Type Four: Compliant

This type of client always says his catchphrase “We do not set deadlines, so you can take your time.” Many people think that this is very good, but in fact this type of client is the worst.

Being accommodating to a freelancer, he can be just as accommodating to himself. If he does not have a clear deadline, then there is no exact payment deadline.

Such a client can be identified immediately – he will declare this himself. This is where you need to be careful. Of course, there is a temptation to work in comfortable, measured conditions, but this comfort is conditional.

Good advice: as soon as you hear the phrase “You can take your time …”, immediately rush into the attack and demand to set the exact deadlines. When working with such clients, this is the only salvation. And if he continues to insist that the timing is not important to him, immediately refuse to cooperate with him. This type is a real wolf in sheep’s clothing. A lot of freelancers have come across this trick, so don’t repeat their mistakes.

Problem clients are an integral part of freelance work. Alas, when working remotely, conflict situations cannot be avoided. But they can be prevented if you know the “enemy” in person. Often clients become problematic through the fault of the freelancer himself due to his inexperience, poor knowledge of psychology and inability to negotiate. An experienced performer will always work in comfortable conditions or will not work at all if he considers cooperation with a client unpromising.

When, after many sleepless nights, the diploma is finally ready, I want to pass it and forget it. But the university will not lag behind the student so easily. After all, the full text of the diploma was read only by the supervisor, and a whole commission will gather to evaluate it. Therefore, in many respects, his assessment depends on how a student defends a diploma.

So what is a successful defense?

  • Competent protection text
  • positive diploma review
  • confident answers to commission questions

In the introduction to the course it is necessary to indicate many important points. One of them is methodology. The student is required to indicate what methods he will use in the study of the topic. This is not the easiest task, and often students cannot cope with this task themselves. In this case, you can contact us. Our experts will write you a paper of any complexity, and you can discuss the price with them personally.

In the introduction to the course it is necessary to indicate many important points. One of them is methodology. The student is required to indicate what methods he will use in the study of the topic. This is not the easiest task, and often students cannot cope with this task themselves. In this case, you can contact us. Our experts will write you a paper of any complexity, and you can discuss the price with them personally.

In the introduction to the course it is necessary to indicate many important points. One of them is methodology. The student is required to indicate what methods he will use in the study of the topic. This is not the easiest task, and often students cannot cope with this task themselves. In this case, you can contact us. Our experts will write you a paper of any complexity, and you can discuss the price with them personally.

In the introduction to the course it is necessary to indicate many important points. One of them is methodology. The student is required to indicate what methods he will use in the study of the topic. This is not the easiest task, and often students cannot cope with this task themselves. In this case, you can contact us. Our experts will write you a paper of any complexity, and you can discuss the price with them personally.

Speech structure

Of course, what exactly to say in the defense depends mainly on the topic of the thesis and on what exactly is written in it, but there are general recommendations that are suitable for everyone.

  • First of all, we need to greet the members of the evaluation committee. (“Dear members of the attestation commission! Your attention is presented to the final qualifying work on the topic …”)
  • Introductory part. Here you need to reveal the topic and identify the issues that are raised in the work.
  • Relevance of the topic. At this stage, it is important to prove the relevance of the chosen topic and the degree of its development in other people’s works. Indicate the subject, object, objectives and purpose of the study.
  • Theme disclosure structure. Here you just need to list the paragraphs that are in the work and briefly describe them.
  • Problem statement. To confirm the relevance of the topic, it is necessary to state the problem and indicate the debatable opinions on this matter.
  • Conclusions. At the end of the speech, the commission should hear the conclusions that the student came to in the course of writing the diploma, in which there are ways and methods for solving the stated problems.

On the one hand, it seems that it is much easier to write a graduation speech than the diploma itself. However, high-quality speech is a skillful squeeze out of the work, as well as its competent presentation. And it often happens that a diploma is written with the highest score, and a student gets a worse grade. Therefore, if there is a lack of self-confidence, you can order a speech on our website. And then the probability of failure due to bad speech will disappear. After all, we give a twenty-day guarantee for the work, and if something does not suit you, you can demand that the author finalize the order for free. We make sure that students are satisfied, so if the final version of the work does not meet the stated requirements, you will get your money back.

Formal requirements

When writing a speech for a thesis, you must also take into account that there are purely formal requirements.

  • Time. Do not forget that there are many students, but the commission is one. Therefore, the time for a defensive speech is regulated and ranges from 5 to 7 minutes. At the same time, you should remember about the time that will be spent on commission questions.
  • Intonation. Where, no matter how on the defense of a diploma, is it important to win over listeners? Therefore, it is better not to read the speech monotonously, making accents with intonation.
  • Style. When presenting a speech, it should be remembered that the main goal is understanding on the part of the commission. Therefore, you should not be too smart, but you can’t switch to colloquial speech either. In this matter, you need to observe the golden mean.
  • Pronouns. As in the diploma itself, it is important to remember during the defense that although the author of the diploma is clearly spelled out, there are a lot of true owners of knowledge reflected in the work (the authors of all the sources the student relied on plus the supervisor), so first-person pronouns are not appropriate here.
  • Questions. After the end of the speech, questions from the commission will inevitably follow, and you need to be ready for them. Suggested questions should be written down in the course of writing the thesis, work through all the questions that arose during the pre-defense, and you can also look at the questions at the end of chapters from textbooks on this topic.
  • Pre-protection. In such a matter as defending a diploma, it is better not to be presumptuous and neglect pre-defense. On it, you can practice giving a speech and write down possible questions from the audience. This will allow you to feel more confident in the official defense.

Of course, these are only recommendations, and no one forces you to strictly follow them. However, the rejection of some positions during the defense will create additional questions from the certification committee, which is not always loyal. Therefore, it is best to think through all possible questions and answer them in advance in a defensive speech. Then the teachers will have a minimum of questions, and they will be grateful for the saved time.