Working with freelancers can be very easy or very hard. It depends on how well a client chooses their freelancers and vise verse – how well a freelancer chooses their clients. Starting a trial assignment is the easiest way to determine if a client and a freelancer are a good match.
When working with freelancers, start a trial assignment before committing for the long-term.
A trial assignment is usually a quick job or one-time gig. For example:
Designing or writing the copy for a landing page is a good trial assignment to determine if you want to work on a website design or copy with that client or freelancer.
It’s a small job but it’s enough for freelancers and clients alike to see some crucial points like:
- How well the client lays out their requirements
- What questions the freelancer asks (if any)
- How quick each party replies
- What type of feedback the client gives on first drafts (if any)
- Does the client know what they want, or is the communication vague
- What type of person do you have to deal with, be it the freelancer or the client
- What’s the quality of the freelancer’s work
- Is the other party easy to communicate with
- How flexible the freelancer is in terms of edits and changes
And so on.
How the trial assignment is beneficial to freelancers and clients alike
If all goes well with the landing page trial assignment, it’s easy to turn it into a long-term project for ongoing design or copywriting assignments – e.g. of a website, a brochure, or the company’s entire line of marketing collateral materials.
If the trial assignment doesn’t go as well as planned though, you can leave your review and/or feedback to the other party and be on your way. No hard feelings, just a business transaction with not as good outcome as planned.
Freelancers and clients may not be a good match for many reasons but starting a trial assignment before making a long-term commitment is beneficial for many reasons:
- You don’t waste your time – the trial assignment is usually a quick job which doesn’t require much time and efforts on either part
- You don’t waste energy into lengthy discussions and trying to fix a broken project
- You don’t waste money into corrections
- You have enough time and money to continue looking until you find the right fit – be it a client or a freelancer.
Make sure the trial assignment is paid though!
No successful freelancer would agree to work for free – trial assignment or not. Some freelancers may require an upfront payment, others may not. But all of them would dismiss as “unsuitable” every client who wants them to work for free.
If a freelancer agrees to a non-paid trial assignment, most probably their work will not be of quality. Another possibility is they are new to the market and don’t know better – once they learn how to protect their interest, they would move on to more suitable clients who appreciate their freelancers’ work better.
It’s certainly a good idea for a client. I think it’s also a positive move for the freelancer too.
The relationship between a client and freelancer is very important. It doesn’t take long to discover whether both are a good fit with one another. A trial assignment is an excellent way to achieve this.
I agree, Edward – even more, if you are a client – a trial assignment helps you try more than one freelancer for the same job and pick the one which you work best with. Thanks for adding to the conversation 😀
I don’t necessarily agree on trial assignments. It introduces a negative at the beginning of the relationship. You’re saying you may not like/trust the client. The client is saying s/he is not sure about you. If there is that level of doubt it would be better not to take on the assignment at all, in my view.
Hi, Jeannette! Thanks for sharing your perspective why you are against trials. I don’t see it that way though – I don’t think any client would trust a freelancer and vise verse before they have actually worked together.
If you meet a freelancer and you say you trust them from day 1 – i simply won’t believe you. I may tell you i will never miss a deadline – but until you actually see how i work and manage my time, you could never be sure if i keep deadlines or not. Trust is earned. And one can earn it with time – not with sweet talk.
I agree with you that trust is important fir a successful relationship – but i disagree that starting a trial undermines the trust. To the contrary – you show that you are entering the relationship with an open mind – it may work out, or it may not. We’ll try and we’ll see 😀