>design website for someone
>"by the way, anon, can you change this?" every single day, but won't let me do it remotely, INSISTS on meeting in person
>every day, for a month
>after concluding it's "done"
Corporate wagecuckery is still worse, but this is hell.
Can any freelancer anons share advice on how to go about keeping customers at bay?
>won't let me do it remotely, INSISTS on meeting in person
is this person of the opposite gender
maybe they're making excuses to see you
tell them to pay for your fuel then
>maybe they're making excuses to see you
anon not every woman wants to fuck on sight
who said anything about fucking, schizo trpp reply
>who said anything about fucking, schizo trpp reply
man, you havent seen some of the weird shit other anons have posted here about women
I want to, but I'm not sure what the best way to ease into it would be.
I can say I found other clients, and will be a little busier from now on, so it'd be preferable to do small fixes remotely?
I think I understand the value of professional aloofness now, because becoming buddies with your clients means having to make concessions on a constant basis.
theres nothing wrong with becoming buddies with people but, dont be a doormat either, if you make more friends, that means more opportunities, but you need to find some balance between business and fun anon imo
For sure.
They're actually my second-ever client (first-ever was basically a family friend, and I did it free of charge), so I still haven't quite figured this thing out, especially how to go about charging and what-not.
i dont think you can tell this guy now about the fuel or you will come across as an asshole, you could be gentle about him and tell him that, its super pricy to just, come over so, he could at least make it count, by giving you a list of things to change beforehand when you get there, but for new customers, you should have some sort of travel fee if they really want you to be there, i think this is the more reasonable approach so that you wont upset him, just be tactful and nice about it
Yeah, that's what I figured - I don't want to be a cunt, because I'm already basically doing it; I don't even mind the commute so much, it's not far, it's just that it gets very, very off-topic, very fast, and I don't have the heart to bill him for it, so I just end up wasting 2+ hours on every meeting, and get maybe 30 minutes to an hour of work actually done.
you just have to be more assertive or, just tell him that you are in a hurry and that you dont really have the time to talk, but try to not be rude about it, somehow, you dont want to hurt his feelings either, maybe do chat for a little bit but, not too much
Where do you post your ads anon? I want to get into freelancing for the shits
Kek, he's a 65 year old businessman, good guy though.
I think he just likes the "yup, gotta do business by meeting in person for everything, no matter how minuscule" thing.
I didn't even know someone other than a 50+ year old owner-operator for a trades company would hire someone to build them a site, never mind a female.
yeah it's always like that. I had to develop an email last week and it went through 14 rounds of revisions for 5 days before they decided to send it last minute on Friday. Then of course I get "did you send it already? if not we would like to add..."
and I promptly sign off for the weekend.
My company would have billed around $2000 for this. Just a text email with a header image sent to around 600 people.
There is something so fundamentally wrong with modern web design, like not even on a technical level, but the way people style and lay out pages. It's like we became so accustomed to being bullshitted in a sterile presentation that everyone instinctively defaults to that now. All widely spaced shit, glossy text with color gradients etc.
This happens even in minute sites. Like you go to the website of a local beekeeper and it fucking looks like the website of a FAANG company, and the FAANG website looks like the website of an investment bank. There is literally zero personality to any of it despite cumulatively billions being spent on styling this shit.
I actually specialize in building "traditional" sites - I've been working on trying to get a quality nostalgia-site game going, or, my second choice for web design is to build them old-school - Old English font, and so on - a lot of the trades / business guys really like it, especially for plumbing and building companies.
Everyone's sick of the modernist shit.
I actually did it purely through networking / cold-calling / unironically coming in and shaking the manager's hand.
I have about 4 clients now through doing that.
It takes a lot of initiative, and you just have to go and do it.
I didn't use social media or anything, but I am setting up a LinkedIn soon.
kek, I hear you, anon - and I feel bad, so I don't even charge for things like these.
I think in the future I will definitely do an up-front pricing thing, they can pay whenever, but they should know what they're going to pay, and what they will get.
I appreciate the advice, fren.
I think I will do just that - and it is true too, because my workload HAS increased, so I think I'll just say I'm busier now / make subtle excuses for travel, and hope he understands the message.
>hope he understands the message.
dont do that, just be honest, dont play stupid games, no hints, just get to the point imo
I guess I can try to be straightforward - I just know him very well, and I think if I said, even very politely, that I'd rather do it remotely, it'd hurt his feelings.
I guess I will just endure it for a little while, and then explain that I need more time for my other projects, keep it professional.
(Me)
its way worse to cock up on a small lie, you end up making a bigger lie, then you get used to lying, you dont need to tell the full truth, the partial truth works too, its not really lying, you just gotta be more subtle about it, but its better than just, bullshiting people, its just more stress for no reason
Yeah, maybe you're right.
My dad used to say the same thing.
I guess I just can't think of a way to tell the truth (me having too much other stuff to do / actually having a bigger workload / not having time to listen to random bits of news for hours at a time). I suppose I will sit down and think about it for a good while, and then find a way to say it.
i dont understand, just tell him you dont have the time, you dont need to justify yourself, keep it simple thats all, you dont need to vomit a giant wall of text on him verbally
>My dad used to say the same thing.
bruh im in my early twenties hows that possible
kek, well, it is an age-old adage that lies tend to snowball, but yeah.
I guess the best way to explain it is that he's from a culture of "work only takes place when people meet in-person", and if I explain that I'm too busy, it means either:
>he's not important enough for me to give him any time
or
>I'm not actually doing any meaningful work remotely
i think you are overthinking it and you are self saboutaging yourself, just talk to him
(Me)
like i could write you some more bullshit advice but deep down you know thats what needs to be done, anyway i will leave you to the other anons, i will leave you to the hounds
Cheers, anon.
I'll definitely think about what you said.
Perhaps so, I wanted to be a mechanical engineer, but circumstances forced me into IT / web dev.
you deserve it for being a webdev
You have to look busy, have many clients
One think he can just order you?
Sorry boss, I'm working on someone else's stuff