What are some green flag indicators to take note of to help identify such clients when taking on new freelance work?

Here are 3 to consider:

1. Clients who pay their invoices on time

This has got to be the biggest bugbear for most freelancers. Clients who don’t pay on time can wreak havoc on your cash flow, not to mention the time, money, and stress of chasing up late payments. So what indicators are there that a client will pay their invoices on time?

A good indicator might be how they deal with money and budget issues from the get-go. For example, are they happy to pay a deposit upfront with no quibbling, especially for large projects or new clients with no payment history to go by? Whether that’s 50% for bigger projects, or something smaller or milestone pricing. Payment up front shows commitment to the project and increases the likelihood they will pay on time.

With Invoice Ninja, we have lots of helpful features to help you get paid fast and on time. For example, our Payment Schedule feature lets you split a single invoice into multiple scheduled payments. Instead of creating separate invoices, you can define a series of automatic payments tied to a single invoice. Set the amounts and dates for each installment, and the system will automatically charge the customer according to the schedule.

This makes it easy to offer payment plans while keeping everything organized under a single invoice. Watch our short video to take you through the setup.

With the Invoice Ninja Enterprise Plan, you can even lock documents until the invoice is paid. Find out more here.

Try Invoice Ninja for free here.

2. Clients who respect boundaries

While we live in a 24/7 connected world, it doesn’t mean you should be available day or night, unless that’s part of your Unique Selling Point (USP). In any event, just because your business may run 24/7 on autopilot, it doesn’t mean you have to – or that clients can contact you whenever they feel like it. But unless you set boundaries, clients won’t know what is acceptable and what isn’t.

That’s why it’s a good idea to have an onboarding process in place that outlines when you are available and stipulates clear lines of communication for both parties. For example, are you dealing with just one person, or a team, and more importantly, who is responsible for making sure your invoices are paid on time?

Clients who respect your ways of working from the beginning are more likely to be courteous with your time, appreciate your project and time management skills, and therefore are a good indicator of a green-flag client.

To help with your project management, Invoice Ninja has a task time-tracking feature that lets you accurately record every second spent on each task and quickly transfer the time data to the relevant invoice. 

When you’re done with a task (or series of tasks) within a project, simply click and send your work time to an invoice with 1-click! We also have a Google Chrome task extension so you can manage all your tasks within Chrome.

All tools to make your invoicing fast, simple, and easy for clients to pay you. And while we are talking about easy-to-pay, check out all our payment integrations here.

3. Clients who align with your values

Working with clients who align with your values isn’t always at the forefront of a freelancer’s mind when looking for clients, especially when work is scarce, but it is a key consideration that can determine whether the project will go smoothly and you will be satisfied with the working relationship – and can even impact the quality of work you produce!

So how do you know upfront?

As well as going on your gut instinct, discovery calls or prior contact with a client before working with them, such as meeting them at a networking event, will give you a good idea of whether you get on and if your values align.

Likewise, if they reach out to you and already know what you do and who you help, thanks to your marketing efforts, which can include testimonials and case studies, it will give you a good indicator that they like what they see and feel you would be the perfect fit. Clients also want to work with those who align with their values and brand.

Maybe they’ve contacted you because of your personal brand and content marketing, showing they’ve done their homework, which is another positive indicator.

Or it could be that they have been recommended to you by someone you trust. It might even be that you were referred to them by a previous client you enjoyed working with in the past. Previous good clients have a way of referring more of the same.

Finally, generally speaking, green flag clients communicate well and know what results they are looking for; they are not vague about expectations or budget. Turning up promptly for any pre-work calls is another good indicator that they will start as they mean to go on.

We hope these 3 green flags are useful and help you identify your ideal freelance clients.