In this article, I argue that it's not only unfair to take all the risk for design work, but it's also not a sound business decision on agency’s part.

What to say to a client who offers to pay you not in money, but in his products, services, or other benefits?

This serious business problem is unfortunately as common as sunrise. We have advice that worked for us on how to get paid and how to prevent future problems.

"The client has paid the deposit, I started work but he is now asking for his money back. What should I do?"

"I'm a freelance designer and developer now and would like to run my own digital agency one day. But the gap between freelance and agency seems somewhat a stretch. What would you recommend for someone who seeks to grow into an agency?"

"One of my customers, who is currently doing well on Amazon (more than $10,000 per month in sales), wants to create his own website. He asked me if I'm interested taking over the whole website not just as a project, but as a long term partner, which means, I will do whatever I think will benefit the website in programming, design, and maintenance. He asked me if I want to do it with a fixed rate monthly or a profit share in revenue. Looks like he wants me treat the website as my own business, and invest as much as possible to bring more potential in this eCommerce business. Have anyone had experience like this?"

"We're a large web design company in NJ... We've got a full staff in our office and I think it's time to bring on an official sales person. Out of the companies who are fully staffed, how many of you have a salesperson? If you have one, what has been your experience: when did you hire and why?"

"I am seeking advice on finding clients who are not in your area of work. A few of my ideas that I have come up with is using listings that are in desired prospects' area's and writing emails/cold calling, using Facebook advertising to reach. I would prefer not to resort to using websites like Freelancer.com. I am just curious as to what others have done and found to be successful."

"Lets put aside client referrals... What are you doing to grow your freelance work? 1) Identify wealthy towns/cities near me and visit their towns Chamber of Commerce Business Directory. I go through the listing and quickly review each businesses website and then send them an email introducing myself, how I found their site and offer suggestions on how to improve their website, design, functionality, eCommerce, etc. 2) Networking events. What works for you? #1 is really time consuming and difficult."

"Curious to know how you respond to people who are trying to get your cost down or asking for something they can't afford. I mean other than just saying, 'sorry this is our cost, we can't do it any cheaper'. Do you accompany that with any explanations?"