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Feeling very discouraged


logaga

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Having a bad day and feeling very discouraged and considering whether I should stay on Fiverr.

Buyers will talk and talk with you for an hour they think it's tinder, and I find it hard to say "hey you are not worth my time giving you free consultations and "talking things through with you" unless I get an order". Where is the boundary?

A few things that happened recently and I really feel like I've had enough, Fiverr is becoming toxic and I'm not feeling protected as a seller:

1. A buyer, who's already placed one order with me, messages me every other day talking about future plans how to work together. Honestly, he's very new to the industry and has no idea what he's doing. I try to be friendly and open and shared a lot of insights with him in good faith, and getting back to him often when he messages, it almost felt like I was an unpaid employee in his company, me willing to do this hoping it could result in further partnerships. He wanted to schedule a zoom call to talk about more, me thinking, hell, I've already spent so much time doing this with him, I don't want to waste an opportunity, so I hopped on a call. After the call, which was positive, and he even messaged me more ideas after the call, I sent him an offer with the price for the job as we discussed. (Nothing far off from what was discussed and what's already on my profile, and honestly ridiculously low prices as I am still trying to achieve the next seller level). He did not reply AT ALL after this. After so much communication. Not at all. Would this be decent behavior in the real world? I won't force anyone to accept any offers, but a short thank you but no thanks would have been decent. If he has to spend 200 dollars on a sampling a pair of pants with a factory I don't see how me charging around 500 for a full on building of his brand and designing and tech packs is not reasonable, I don't know  how these people think designers eat.

 

2. A buyer, who asked for a 6-hour turn around of sketches, which I delivered in an even shorter time frame, asked for 2 additional changes which I did for free for her. (because I was so afraid of a bad review, WHY??? why do sellers need to always live in fear???) She said she was very happy with it and want to work with me again, yet, she does not even hit the accept delivery button after me reminding her. WHY?? (Sorry I am very frustrated today).

 

3. A buyer, who has previously also placed an order with me, came back to ask for another gig. My prices are already transparent on my page, and during the almost 40 minutes conversation we have, I have continuously tried to ask about her budget and she was adamant on a particular gig/price point. I spent time again "talking things through with her" and giving her insight on how to build up her brand within a budget. At the end, she said sorry for the back and forth but she realizes she doesn't need it and talking with me opened up her mind so much. It was for a merely 60 dollars gig. 

On top of that, countless hours talking with people on their projects hoping they would place an order (because I seriously don't know how to just be cold and say NO and keep things strictly transactional, maybe it's my problem), only for them not to even give you a reply when you finally send an offer, again, not far off form the prices already transparent on my profile.

 

I am going to be honest, I am feeling very discouraged today and my ego is hurting bad. I don't know why people can view design work as such low services not even worth the price of a decent meal. I used to work for a big brand and my salary was over 150k USD a year. I am having a Visa issue when I relocated after the pandemic and am left with no right to work until further notice, so I have turned to fiverr. I have a lot to give, I work hard, I am experienced, I always give the sellers more than it's worth, yet I feel like Fiverr is a platform where sellers always have the lower hand and we have to keep living in fear and over compensate only for people being not even half decent.

 

I am sure I am not the only one who feels this way or have gone through this, if you could give me some advise. You would make my day.

 

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51 minutes ago, logaga said:

used to work for a big brand and my salary was over 150k USD a year.

Usually it’s tough transition from a salty to being a freelancer 😉 it’s a different kind of responsibility. In a big company you can hide behind their back when you ask for extra for revisions etc and usually there are other people to cover for you, your bosses, managers etc. 
However when you are freelancer you can’t do that anymore. 

rule number 1: don’t ask clients what is their budget. If client is given a choice they will alway pick a low number, most clients don’t understand your line of work, how much time and effort and how much should it cost. know your worth and when they come to you ask questions and details about their project, don’t spend time on chit chatting or giving free advices. You need to manage a client to put them back on course to answer the questions you need to understand a scope and when you have the info just give them a quote on how much it will cost with a breakdown of their project and your services. Simple, takes not more than 15-25 min in total. 
 

rule 2: don’t be afraid to say no or to send an extra offer for extra services. You putting boundaries doesn’t mean that you will get bad review. 
I send extras almost on every third order and clients most of the time actually apologetic that they didn’t notice that it was extra cost and still give 5 stars reviews. When you know your worth and stand your ground then your clients also know what you worth. And to manage situations with revision you can just add a message to your delivery along the lines of “please let me know if you want to add changes as we have x revisions included in our order” and update that number with every delivery. 
 

You’ll get the hang of freelancing. It just takes a bit of adjustment 

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41 minutes ago, mariashtelle1 said:

rule number 1: don’t ask clients what is their budget.

I don't agree, I always ask them. Rule number one in business - never be the first to propose a price. Precisely for the reason you mentioned. The client comes to the conversation with a number in their head. If you throw your number at them without them divulging theirs first, they will indeed pick the lower number. Which may as well be the one you put forth, thereby leaving money on the table.

Information is power, you want to know their budget before they know yours, because then it is you who who gets to chose the value.

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15 minutes ago, visualstudios said:

don't agree, I always ask them.

I do know your position on this @visualstudios 😉 you mentioned it before. 
 

And it’s also valid and both strategies can work. But for the OP that strategy is obviously failing because you also need to know how to navigate and negotiate within it. 
On fiverr especially for design services that are not so abstract I find the most effective is to have a clear pricing when your services are below 1000-3000$ mark. 

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6 hours ago, logaga said:

I seriously don't know how to just be cold and say NO and keep things strictly transactional

Allow them one or two or three questions (a reasonable amount of questions), and then send them a custom offer for a consultation (and make it as clear as possible, for example, you will answer one question for $5 or $10 or whatever would be a fair price; or a 15-minute conversation for $20 or $50 or whatever would be the fair price for someone with your expertise). If they refuse, you have at least saved some time (you can also politely tell them that you're sorry, but you're doing this for a living, and you don't offer free consultations).

6 hours ago, logaga said:

She said she was very happy with it and want to work with me again, yet, she does not even hit the accept delivery button after me reminding her. WHY??

Some buyers let the order complete automatically, for whatever reason. It is their right.

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