5 Things Web Developers Should Do to Avoid Getting Screwed by their Clients.

This has been bothering me over the past couple of months and I just thought I’d share some random thoughts about things you should make sure your clients understand about web development, their expectations, and what to expect from you as their developer through, during, and after the initial development process.

1. Let the clients know that you do actually have other clients and even though their project isn’t less important than the other clients, but please be respectful of the time that needs to be shared across all client lines.
2. You do get what you pay for and sometimes a little bit more.  Meaning my old philosophy was to always err on the side of the client…if there’s a contractual problem that results in a few extra hours, then go ahead and do it.  However I now realize that even though you go the extra mile, the old addage my mother used to say about giving people an inch and they’ll take a yard still holds true to this day.  So give the client what they paid for…and then if there’s a problem and they want something extra, explain to them why they need to pay for that as well.
3. Write your contracts with no guarantees.  One of my favorite films is Tommy Boy and if you remember this film, his father “Big Tom” would tell potential customers who wanted a guarantee from him about his auto parts that you can take a piece of s**t, put it in a box and slap a guarantee on it…however all you’re guaranteeing is that it is just a guaranteed piece of s**t in a box.  The same holds true in web development.  If you do quality work, let that work speak for itself.  If they want a guarantee, let them know that you provide a service contract that they can purchase that will cover certain issues if there is a problem.
4. Don’t let yourself be taken advantage of…have your clients pay for the programming hours before they are used.  I know this is a very bold statement, however in this wacky economy right now it’s necessary.  I have 4 clients who are 90+ days out on their payments.  I’ve even shut down a website because this person hasn’t contacted me about the final payment or anything.  It’s not fair to the developer who takes a lot of time to produce quality web development work and then gets left holding the bag.  If you go into a grocery store and say…bill me…they’ll tackle you and maybe even prosecute you for shoplifting.  In the web world you should space out your payments enough so that a client doesn’t waste a ton of money if the developer doesn’t pull through, but still can satisfy the web developer’s need to get paid for their time.
5. Always keep detailed records of the time you’re spending on a project…even if it’s a flat fee project.  The reason…you can always show your client the amount of hours a certain task has taken and if they believe they’re not getting enough work from you, you have a good backup for those discussions.  It probably would help sending those hours summaries each week as well.

I’ll probably have a few followups to this subject, but if you have any horror stories you’d like to share and what you’ve done to avoid them in the future, I think we’d all like to see them.  I’m not ragging on all clients…I have several really really good ones who are great overall…but there are a few which really get your goat…and it really isn’t fair.  So take these suggestions for what it’s worth and I hope it makes for a better client experience for you and your web development company.