If you get a freelancing gig, how much should the client expect from you? In this post we’ll discuss this controversial topic and also examine some legal issues between client/freelancer relationships.
What some clients expect of freelancers?
The answers and the questions between clients and freelancers should be driven, of course, under the agreement. Some clients, though, have expectations that were never a part of the agreement.
As example, you can overhead a business owner complaining about the freelancer availability, that he or she had to wait for ‘’his’’ freelancer over an hour to receive returned call.
Viewing this in real manner you will agree that this particular business owner wanted his freelancer to behave more as an employee than a freelancer.
What every client should expect?
Every client should expect to receive a quality product or service in agreed deadline. This is a cardinal rule of doing business as a freelancer, though many of them don’t keep this rule: they deliver poor quality, or miss a deadline, or their work misses the mark. One way to solve the problem of failed expectation is trough negotiations with the client.
The client may hesitate to hire you the next time he have a project, or he may feel more a need for your work depended upon your work quality.
Negotiating is key
Good negotiations make attachment between the client and the freelancer for the further expectations. All of the issues of working process should be covered in a thorough negotiation process with the client. In fact, the client and the freelancer should have a contract, or at least have an attachment between. Both the freelancer and the client must be aware that there will be tax problems if something is done over the rule in relations with freelancers.
What the IRS says
Freelancer is considered to be independent contractor for tax purposes. The IRS has guidelines that check if the worker is considered as independent contractor or an employee.
The distinction between an employee and an independent contractor is the amount of behavior control that a business has over a worker. It is important to understand it, because a client that hires an employee and then misclassifies them as an independent contractor may wind up paying a lot of back taxes and penalties.
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