FreelanceSweat

This exchange happened fairly recently.

CLIENT: I need a website. I have a thriving network marketing business and obviously the World Wide Web should help me grow even more!

MY BRAIN: MLM? Oh crap.
MY MOUTH: OK. Want me to write your content too, or would you prefer to provide all that?

CLIENT: Why does it matter?

MY BRAIN: There’s more work, genius.
MY MOUTH: Well, copywriting is additional work, so I charge a bit extra if you want that on top of Web design. The project will cost less if the content’s all from you and I don’t…

CLIENT: Well, I was thinking to pay you a percentage of what I make through the website.

MY BRAIN: Uh-huh.
MY MOUTH: Uh-huh.

CLIENT: It’ll work out nicely for you. I make $200K a year!

MY BRAIN: Hmmmm…
MY MOUTH: What percentage? And bear in mind that if I take this on, the cut will be from the whole $200K, and more as it grows of course, since with typical MLM ops I don’t think you can isolate…

CLIENT: Well, I’m not quite making $200K just yet.

MY BRAIN: …
MY MOUTH: …

CLIENT: I just started last month, but I now have 7 in my downline, more than twice the projected 3! At this rate, I’ll be pulling in $200K annually in a year or sooner!

MY BRAIN: Mothereffing hell…
MY MOUTH: Bringing your attention back to how much I charge to do the work, I require 50% of the estimated job cost upfront, then [yada yada yada]

Eldon Sarte
http://eldonsarte.com