Warning signs to look for in a potential customer? [closed]

Question

I have seen a few questions about how to interview potential employees and employers, but this is something fairly important that I've come across in the past and I'm sure a lot of other users here will have too:

If you are running a small development company, consultancy or working freelance, what are the warning signs you look for in a potential client? There must be some things that are indicators that a customer will require a lot of supervision, demand a lot of your time and perhaps need you to adjust your charging model accordingly- what are these in your experience and how do you handle them?

What are the red-flags that indicate to you that a customer is going to simply be too much trouble to work with at all? Where do you set the threshold for this decision?

Answer 1

Look for how much detail they know about their project, and how much they want to talk about it. If they seem focused on the details, they may drive you crazy by trying to micro-manage your work. If they don't seem to know much about the details, then they (the customer) may be in over their heads as they don't know the scope of the project. A good customer will know the details when asked, but won't want to drone on about them excessively.

Oh, a quick way to make the customer choose their billing model: when explaining to them what your contract includes (working with them for requirements, development, testing, etc) add a note that this includes x hours of phone and e-mail communication, where x is some function of the size of the project based on experience. Add that additional time will cost $250 per hour in 30 minute increments. That will discourage them from contacting you for every trivial question, and to put together lists of things to talk to you, which makes contact more efficient. Assuming your value for x is reasonable, a low-maintenance customer will have no problem with it, so you can remove that clause from the contract, since it's irrelevant. A high maintenance customer will want to know why it's so little, what if it's just a teeny question, etc.

Answer 2

Any of these:

• They don't have a clear idea of what they are trying to achieve
• They try to dictate a technical solution to you before you have even examined the requirements / They don't seem interested in your opinion as the consultant
• They agressively haggle over price
• If doing any kind of graphical front-end, they ask for spec-work in advance of any kind of agreement