1. Casting the net wide

The first thing to be aware of as a service provider is that it is common for a buyer to cast their net wide and will usually choose the first offer they receive. Not all buyers say whether they have invited multiple service providers to do the job. So, as a seller, it would be prudent to proceed on the assumption that they have.

There is a variation on this, which again is not often disclosed to the seller at the outset. That is, the buyer wants a backup in case the preferred service provider is unable to do the job for some reason.

This may make sense to the buyer. However, from the service provider’s perspective, there is uncertainty about whether they have secured the work. Because of the uncertainty, service providers are likely to accept a firm offer from another buyer to do work. If that happens, the buyer could find themselves in a situation in which multiple service providers withdraw their offers.

An example

Something along these lines happened to me earlier today. I was asked to work on two urgent documents. The timescale was short. I responded with an offer within ten minutes of receiving the request. A short time afterwards, I was informed that another service provider had been awarded the job the previous day. The previous day! Naturally, I withdrew my offer. Later, the original service provider dropped out, and the buyer placed an order with me, but by that time, I had accepted another brief and was working on it. The buyer was not pleased that he was not at the head of the queue, and not even in second place – caveat emptor!

Helping themselves

Buyers could help themselves by informing prospective service providers that they had invited other service providers to bid for the work. It is unscrupulous to invite bids for work after it had already been given to someone else. If that deal falls through for whatever reason, buyers should be honest and say the work had been given to another service provider, but they had to drop out. Openness helps to build trust and confidence between the parties.

2. Unscrupulous buyers

There are unscrupulous buyers. Although such people form a tiny minority of buyers, as a service provider, you will come across such people at some time in your career. These are people for whom you have done a good job and met their requirements in the provision of your service, but who nevertheless reject your work for some vague and spurious reason. They hide behind the dispute resolution procedure, knowing the platform will take their side and that they get to keep the fruits of their labour without having to pay for it.

I try to protect myself by making it clear to prospective buyers that the offer I made to them is subject to my terms and conditions and that no copyright or other intellectual property right in my work passes to the buyer until I have received payment in full.

I also make a Google search against sections of the work I created to see if the unscrupulous buyer has used my copyrighted work. If they have, I always make a copyright claim. Fortunately, I have rarely had to do this, but it was effective when I did.

I block every buyer who behaves in this way.

Conclusion

Open, honest communication between the buyer and service provider helps build trust and confidence, leading to a successful collaboration that benefits both parties.

1. The brief is unclear

I have seen many instances where a brief has been posted that insufficiently describes what the service provider is being asked to do. This is often due to the buyer not understanding what work they want done or them communicating it poorly. If the brief does not adequately describe what needs to be done, how can the service provder meet the brief?

There are two possible outcomes:

• The brief is accepted by a service provider who is willing to take the risks inherent in the job; or

• The service provider seeks more information.

The risk inherent in the first possible outcome is that the interpretation of the brief by the service provider does not meet the buyer’s expectations notwithstanding that they were inadequately formulated and or poorly communicated. Both parties lose in such a situation, but the bigger loser is the service provider whose reputation may be injured and they might not receive payment.

Asking the buyer for clarification of the brief is the better course of action.

If you are a buyer, try to describe the brief is as much detail as possible. If you receive a request for more information from the service provider, you should answer their questions as best you can.

I decline the brief if the buyer cannot describe the work they want to be done with sufficient clarity, or if they do not reply to my request for more information.

2. The buyer’s expectations are unrealistic

There are three areas in which the buyer might have unrealistic expectations:

• The skill and expertise required to do the job;

• The time required to do the job; and

• The cost.

In most cases, the buyer is unrealistic in all of these aspects. This finding is backed up by research conducted by Fiverr.

When I come across unrealistic expectations, I communicate with the buyer to politely inform them that they are being unrealistic. Sometimes, this has resulted in the buyer revising their expectations and a successful brief ensued. However, most often the buyer failed to respond, so I declined the brief.

Skill and expertise

A brief I have often seen is for proofreading and verifying the accuracy of a document translated from another language. This requires three levels of expertise:

1. Fluency in the original language;
2. Fluency in the language of the translated document; and
3. Proofreading and editing skills.

What the buyer really wants is a bilingual proofreader, but they have not limited the brief to such service providers.

I have recently seen a brief that required the service provider to not only proofread an academic medical science document, but for them also to verify all of the references to ensure they were correct as well as their proper citation.

Do not accept the brief if you do not have the skills required to do the job properly.

Time required to do the job

A simple and straight forward proofreading job of a short document can be completed within a few hours, that is not the case for complex tasks and or where additional services are to be provided. Checking references and citations is laborious and time consuming. Plagiarism and AI checks add to the time to complete the job as well as additional cost.

Not all buyers appreciate how much time will be required to do their job. So, as a service provider, you should tell the buyer how long you think it will take you to complete the job and how much it will cost.

However, many briefs are eleventh hour jobs where the buyer wants the service provider to drop everything and complete their task within a few hours – a day at most. Many buyers use briefs as a way of avoiding paying a premium for extra fast delivery. This is unethical.

If the buyer will not allow sufficient time for you to do the job properly, you should decline the brief.

Cost

Buyers who post their job on sites such as Fourerr or Fiverr, for example, often have a misconception that the job will only cost them a handful of dollars as both of these sites started out offering jobs for four and five dollars respectively. This is no longer the case, but the perception will be reflected in the buyer’s budget or the price they are willing to pay as shown against their brief. This is often much less than you would charge for doing the job.

This is the buyer dictating an unrealistic price for the job. It is up to you to accept or reject their price. Instead of rejecting it outright, you could make them a counter offer on your terms and conditions. The buyer then has either to accept your counter offer or reject it.

If I am interested in doing the job, assuming the brief is sufficiently clear, I send the buyer my price and timescale for doing the work on my terms and conditions. They can either accept my offer or they can reject it.

If the buyer will not pay a fair price for you to do the job properly, you should decline the brief.

Communication with the buyer

If you get a brief from a buyer that is deficient or unrealistic in any way, contact the buyer to ask for more information or to suggest how their expectations could be better managed instead of rejecting it immediately. There may be some negotiation resulting in an amended brief that both parties are happy with. That would be a postiive outcome for both the buyer and the service provider.

Good communication between the buyer and service provider is essential to achieving a successful outcome on the brief.