How to avoid conflicts and deal with them

Work from home and being your own boss could be attractive as it has its own charm. But there is a dark side of every good thing. In freelancing, this bad side is to deal with some un-appreciated practices followed by clients and freelancers.

So how to deal with them? First thing you need to understand is a poor communication could lead to misunderstandings and misunderstandings lead to bad experience working with each other. Communication could be poor from either side and no matter who is the culprit but it leads to a bad experience. These are the 2 main reasons of conflicts and how you can avoid them:

1.Bad Communication

It is human nature to complain about things. We’ve heard freelancers complaining about a bad client and on the same time we’ve heard the client complaining about bad freelancers.

It comes when the things are not communicated well enough. In most cases, when checked deeply, the only reason was a poor communication.

Communication is considered to be poor in several conditions like:

• Not being transparent about budget.
• Not being clear about the work.
• Client is not sure about what exactly he wants.
• Too much communication is also a poor communication.
• Not being transparent about the working hours, both clients and freelancer.
• Not providing mutually agreed updates or not replying to these updates.
• Expecting too much from each other without proper communication.
• Being unrealistic in commitments.

When you know the communication is the reason of your bad professional relations, it is easy to resolve and overcome. In order to resolve it, be honest, clear and concise. Identify the main reason of poor communication and present it to the other party. More likely the other party would be understanding and willing to make things right. If not, it is time to consider the bottom line of this post.

2. Bad Budget

It could become a serious point of disputes. Both, clients and freelancers, are here to make money and achieve their dreams. Sometimes, good money is not the sole motivator, but it is always an integral part of our life.

Client might actually be having a low budget and the freelancer might be expecting to negotiate and raise rates after accepting the project. It leads to serious troubles for both parties. And the only way to resolve is being totally clear and transparent before accepting or awarding the project.

Client should follow some simple tips to avoid this situation:

• Be clear about budget and don’t change it after the contract.
• Don’t expect a freelancer to work with less than fair rate.
• Don’t make newbie freelancers to work only for good feedback without money.
• Respect his skills and expertise and be generous to pay for the efforts he made.
• Short term projects could be done with a fixed initial rate. While awarding a long term project, expect that the freelancer might raise his rates after 2-3 months. This is how freelancing world works.

Freelancer should follow these simple tips to avoid a conflict:

• Respect a client’s upfront budget discussion. Sometimes they might actually have low budget but it could change anytime.
• Don’t raise your rates for short term projects, instead complete existing short projects in existing rates and take new projects on raised rates.
• Raising rates after a certain time is a good practice. You can do it in long term ongoing projects after a certain period of time. Work some time on initial rates mutually agreed while accepting the contract. You can raise your rates after 2-3 months but make sure to inform your clients.
• Don’t make lowball, less than fair bids. If you get the project on this bid, you might actually loose your interest while working on the project.
• Be strong in invoicing and billing your clients on time and as agreed mutually.

If things are set up clear and transparently you can easily avoid the conflicts about budget. But even after trying hard, it is not resolved because of the other party, consider following the bottom line.

The Bottom Line

Firing is not fun, but a part of the job. Most of us never like to fire each other but sometimes it becomes the need of hour. If the things are not going in the right direction, it is better to stop them. You would always find someone that suits you best. Firing a client could be difficult but saves you hours of your precious time. And firing a freelancer could delay your work but sometimes it is better for the fruitfulness of the same work.

If it comes to this, take the hard decision and be sure about it. There is always a right time, identify the right time and take action.

Last Modified: Mar 16, 2017