I’m 7 months new to freelancing and I’m not very clear if they are or not, if it’s something companies often expect to make arrangements for. But I’ve got this client I’ve been working for since July, they’ve set me up to work on 3 phases of this project. I get paid portions within each phase. In the first, we agreed I could be paid up front. For the second phase (which I’m coming to the end of now) they agreed to give me an advance when I asked for one. I’m actually extremely broke, besides the fact that I’m doing this kind of work, and doing good work that this client has been pretty happy with all this time.
I’ve been working outside of a contract with them lately(not so for phase 1), which I thought would be cool but they are not being clear to me when I ask WHEN they’re paying me the next $1000 (2nd portion, this phase) which should be soon. Even when I ask a second time, via email. We communicate via email and gmail chat, they’re usually in Mexico. Unfortunately I have to depend on one of them to give me some needed content to get the last part of this project done (it will take one busy day to work it all in).
Also they are now saying that for the 3rd phase they will pay me after the first portion of that phase is done. So, despite the work I’ve done they’ve been satisfied with, which they’ve usually paid me in advance for, they now say they won’t give me an up front payment. So there’s now a wider gap between payments. Which usually I wouldn’t gripe about, but last month I only earned $1300 (not just from them) and if I don’t get paid twice by them, or someone else, within this month, I have to know now so that I can give proper notice to move out of my house, and to decide which of my bills to pay late for a second or third month in a row: the ones that otherwise leave me with no more phone service or the ones that otherwise will have me reported to collection agencies? They do know I’m in a bad situation financially, they probably don’t know how bad though. Never been this broke in my life.
Either I can keep working like a dog at their mercy, expected to always agree with them or something because they, somehow, are the most reliable client I have or I can tell them very soon, no, hold it, I’m not doing the 3rd phase if they don’t agree to pay me up front for the first portion of that phase.
My MAIN QUESTION: Would this be bratty or does this sound pretty fair?
It’s hard for me to do my best work for someone who seems to be expressing that they don’t trust me enough, or something, despite everything working out in the past. It is also hard for me to do my best when I have to worry about losing my phone, barely being able to afford food, not knowing if I can make rent, etc.
And yes, I think I need a contract for this 3rd phase if it happens because these people have been pretty flakey and unclear with me. In the middle of the 1st phase they told me they would have me working FT, that I could depend on them, through winter and spring. Not so. They haven’t given me even half the work to pay me as well as they first led on, which has left me scrambling in the last few months looking for other freelance work, which %70 the time ends up with me taking the time to talk to people who sound serious, who SAY they want me to do work for them, and then they just flake away (if this is a northwest thing maybe I should just leave the northwest).
I feel like I should stop freelancing because I can’t count on anyone, even people who I’d expect to be far more professional than I am. Flakes, flakes everywhere
