Lately, I’ve been wary and hesitant to deal with “potential clients” who keep popping up randomly on my DMs with shady tactics and others with no effort whatsoever. Don’t get me wrong, some exceptional, perhaps shy, or clueless people are worth investing time doing business with since they can understand my value and respect my time.

“Potential Clients”

If an experienced creative saw the type of messages I’ve gotten lately and the interactions, they probably would end up dead from a heart attack. These people either are clueless or lazy when approaching me unprofessionally, without details or proposals (collaboration speaking). If I ever wanted to work with someone I’m interested in, the least I could do is investigate them, and go straight to the point.

The Red Flags

The Silent Perfectionist

They initiate conversations without providing many details, yet insist on asking if you are still interested in working with them. This irritates me so much because it obligates me to waste time by investigating vital information that should have been disclosed from the start.

The Entitled Bomber

If they bombard you on all your platforms in a matter of minutes, and you never once interact with them, this means trouble. I once received the same message on every platform from someone who had a bad reputation on holiday. The context of the message wasn’t even urgent.

Psychological Discount Manipulator

When a client is too cordial and insists on buying you something in return for a special treatment. One time at Starbucks, this guy kept insisting on buying me a coffee, no matter the “no’s” he kept pursuing. So I gave in and during the meeting, he asked me what could I do for $100 since I was too pricey and needed a poster with multiple characters, prop designs, and typography included. With a straight face, I told him $100 was not worth my groceries, and he was stunned.

Indecisive, Inexperience & Unsatisfied

Some people need a little guidance and a push, but beware of the clients who don’t know what they want, and end up causing a headache when wasting your time. They could potentially blame you for the results and dare to demand a refund.

The Questionable HaCKeR

I got a “job offer” from someone who was supposedly “legit and professional” from a well-known company out of the blue. I couldn’t decipher if it was her or an IMPOSTAH who took possession of her email. The email contained a phishing link with malware. At the bottom, it said, “If you decide this is not your job and know someone more suitable, please let them know about the job posting”. Never in my life have I read such a thing in a job offer, and that sounded more like they needed accomplices.

The Delusional Maniac

They have unrealistic requirements with awful compensation. I had someone, from a well-known company, approach me about working for them on some illustrations. They paid per piece, (maximum $200). There was no limit for revision, the quantities for delivery could range between 1 and 30 pieces for a 2-week deadline, and also, for that small offer, I had to hand them the editable files. The fuck…

The Lazy Ghost

You know when some wild Pokémon appear to fight you out of nowhere unnecessarily? Yeah, these people will appear in your DMs and mention “I am looking for an artist”. You know what that means right? POTENTIAL WASTED TIME. Unsurprisingly, whenever they use that classic line, it means they never bothered to look at your portfolio in the first place or do research on who you are. The worst part is, after investing time in building up a conversation with questions, they ghost you. YEET!

The NFT Cupid

Don’t get too comfortable when they compliment your work and want to buy them. They are subtle in their message, but unfortunately (for them) you can identify them since they operate in mass groups, and you can notice instantly their questionable patterns with specific keywords in the messages, including weird email names and bad orthography, etc.

The First Bad Impression

Once they get comfortable with you and start to shit talk about other people instead of doing business, you know the jig is up, and it is time to jump ship. It happened to me twice, but this one time I was talking with someone who wanted me to “work” on their project. He kept circling with ramblings and unnecessary information, and instead of telling me if this was paid work or collaboration, decided to talk shit about someone I knew. The conversation could’ve been efficient if he was straight to the point.

The Dumb ScAmMeR 

They are relieved to have finally found you, and are so happy with your work that they instantly offer an amount of money without discussing any details of the “commission”. They are persistent, want to lead the “business” their way, and are curious about confidential information. Likewise, they also tend to lend extra money “accidentally” so they ask you to return the difference with fraudulent processes.

The Slow Undead

That one time I kept chasing a client for a straight 4 months to receive my final payment after finishing her work. Of course, I fired her after the payment. If they are barely responsive and tend to disappear time after time or give the same excuse for a long period, it probably means you’re screwed. I dislike the idea of chasing after people, let alone repeating myself 2 times is enough. I will not beg nor cater to someone like a baby, we are adults and have responsibilities. Act like one.

The Empty-Handed One

Similar to the indecisive one, but this one has nothing to start the work. And when you explain to them that the rate will increase, they throw a fit. Bro, I have to start from scratch because you don’t have material to use as a reference…

How To Outsmart Them And Save Time

Because of all the headaches I’ve gone through between lazy random people, irresponsible clients, and annoying scammers bombarding my exposed email, I decided to take the risk of setting up an interactive contact form with questions. This meant hiding my email from public view and facing the consequence of losing legit potential clients due to wanting to write a simple email, instead of fiddling with an interactive form. Trust me, these days is not worth opening up your bombarded email to see some dumb cold emails you didn’t even ask for (yes, I’m talking to those who keep offering to redesign my website, OfFeNdEd).

• Create interactive forms to obtain accurate responses to save time. I use Typeform to elaborate common responses from clients with vital questions to speed up the process.
• Prepare a “question brief” for the types of potential clients with a pre-template depending on the category: small business, corporation, nonprofit organization, etc.
• Please don’t open any suspicious links via phone, it is hard sometimes to read the entire URL from a small viewport.
• Talk to your inner circles and colleagues about the “potential clients” you encountered, you would be surprised if you stumbled upon one with a bad reputation. It is still your choice to find out and deal with them.
• Be affirmative and authoritative, learn to say no without shame.
• Study each client and their demands, the more you’re familiarized with the workflow and pipelines, the better you can spot inconsistency and unrealistic demands.
• Pay attention to keywords and phrases when filtering their messages. Find contradicting information, always ask questions for confirmation, and document everything.
• Question everything, not everyone has the best intentions. If you see or hear something that is off, ask for input from trusted sources that are in the same field as you. This could save you from a misfortune.
• Don’t accept any or all clients, don’t you dislike certain foods? Do you have allergies?
• Verify if the links have malware, there are tons of online sources that can help you detect them.
• You can hide your email from public view and obligate the “potential clients” to interact with you via pre-formatted forms to avoid bots and scammers bombarding your email with fraudulent content.
• During the first exchange with the client via email, ask them why they think you are the correct person or what they seek from you. It may seem counterproductive, but these types of questions can perhaps clarify that both of you are not a good fit together. Do this with curiosity.

Conclusion

Countless times I went back and forth with people who were clearly not my ideal clients because I knew they couldn’t afford me by that time, and perhaps never will. Yet, I liked and engaged in the conversation due to how genuine they felt. I kept questioning with curiosity, guiding them carefully, and referring them to my creative friends or colleagues.

With the rampant numbers of scammers, “ghost/fraudulent job postings”, and the NFT/AI bros, it has become a daunting task to keep running a business. One simple mistake can compromise your life hood. I’ve grown tired lately because these types of people keep seeking me when I’m just working on my projects and building up communities. I’m not against receiving interest in my work sporadically or working with non-ideal clients; but with the technology of today, you can barely trust anyone these days. Especially, afford another headache with this inflation.

The more this keeps happening and people don’t talk about it, the more it becomes normalized, and newer artists will lose interest fast when they no longer want to venture into the freelance world due to fear and hopelessness.

Thank You For Reading!

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