Look after security of payments
First thing that you should do is to check an e-mail address from which a job offer was received. Unfortunately, not everyone knows that if you type a name, a surname, a company name or an e-mail in a search box, you can find out a lot of interesting things about a certain person. But a new address can be created for a minute, so cheaters who accept somebody’s work and leaving a freelancer without a payment can often change addresses. That is why such a check of customers is not quite effective sometimes.
Here are some other pieces of advice to check your customer:
- Ask for an advanced payment. But not every customer can do that, even if he is honest. A customer is also doesn’t trust you in the beginning that is why he also doesn’t want to be cheated. That is why the best variant is to make a test job. It should not be huge and shouldn’t take a lot of time. Getting acquainted with it a customer will see is it exactly what he needs. And a question about an advanced payment can be discussed easier. This variant is perfect for those who are freshmen in remote work and don’t have a portfolio.
- If there is an offer for a long-term work with a monthly payment, we advise you to talk about making a contract (some companies work with freelancers using this format and do not pay each employee separately, but pay monthly). If a company offers to install a time tracker to control your effectiveness, it is a good sign. It means that a company is ready for a long-term cooperation. At the same time, there should be specified in a contract how a time tracker will calculate your wage. However, usually customers pay more attention not on the time worked but on how many tasks done by some certain time. That is why do not be afraid of time trackers and other tools of customers to control your work.
- Before sending a finished order, send a screen-shot of it in order to prove your reliability. But not every customer is ready to pay for a screen shot. Anyway, it can be a good way to show that you are done and ready to be paid.
- One of most popular and accessible ways is stage payments. It is actual especially when you take a lot of work which can be divided into parts and if you are under time tracker Everybody wins in such a form of payments. A customer can estimate your work not waiting for implementation of the whole order. Time tracker reports will show a customer how much time is spent on different parts of your work and can calculate the amount of a payment. If you are not satisfied by a payment or a customer is not satisfied by your work, you can finish your cooperation before the end of a project.
Using of these pieces of advice, you can minimize your risks to be cheated by a customer. Just be scrupulous about choosing of customers.