When you start working with a new client, there's an unavoidable pile of trust issues sitting between you. They don't know if you're good. They don't know if you work fast, communicate well, or act like a professional. They've been burned before, and they're bracing to be burned again.
That lack of trust rarely announces itself directly. Instead, it shows up as long, painful conversations about estimates. It shows up as attempts to negotiate down your rate, because they don't yet know what your work is actually worth to them. It shows up as scope debates, contract nitpicks, and a general reluctance to let you just get to work.
Make yourself easy to fire
The way around this is counterintuitive: make yourself easy to fire. If your contracts lock the client into a long, unbreakable commitment, the trust issues get amplified — every unknown becomes a risk they have to pre-negotiate away, because they won't get another chance.
We prefer to set up our engagements as rolling two-week commitments. Get us in the door, and see what we can do. If we stink, you'll know quickly and you can get rid of us easily. We never get fired — but it's easy to fire us, and that's the whole point.
The discount for locking us up
We offer discounted rates to clients who want to commit for longer. A lot of them take us up on it once we've proven ourselves for a few weeks. By then, the trust issues have resolved themselves through the actual work, not through a contract negotiation.
This dynamic creates a healthy pressure of accountability in both directions. The client takes on way less financial risk, so they're much more likely to pay our full rate without a fight. And it keeps pressure on us to show up and deliver real value every single week — because if we don't, we're gone, and we know it.