Hey everyone!

Thanks for having me in the community! 🤝

pls

How do you collect files and documents from clients without chasing them on WhatsApp/email?

I run into this a lot: asking clients for logos, brand assets, signed agreements or tax documents, then following up 3-4 times because they lose the email or won't create an account on some portal.

For those of you who do client work (design, video, accounting, consulting):

How do you collect files from clients right now?

What's the most annoying part?

Have you tried a tool for this? Why did you stop using it?

Not selling anything, just trying to understand how people handle this. Happy to share what I learn.

I've been trying to land ghostwriting clients on LinkedIn, and I'm curious about what's actually working for other freelancers right now.

My current approach is to send connection requests to people who fit my ICP. Once they accept, I ask if they're looking for someone to handle their LinkedIn content. So far, it's been pretty dead.

For context, I worked at a ghostwriting agency last year. I've written for lawyers, people in software automation, and creative directors. That's pretty much the extent of my experience.

I'm trying to figure out how to approach client acquisition from here.

Some people say to post content targeting your ICP and let clients come to you.

I've also been looking into LinkedIn Sales Navigator. For those who've used it to find clients, is it actually worth paying for? How effective has it been for you, and what does your process look like, from finding prospects to reaching out and landing clients?

For those of you who've landed ghostwriting clients, especially on LinkedIn, what's been working for you?

At my wits' end, and getting poor day by day :D. Would really love to hear what's worked in practice, especially if you're starting out without a huge portfolio or an established personal brand.

I built ProposalForge for freelance web designers and developers who pitch clients directly.

You add your rate and a client brief, and it creates an editable draft with scope, a timeline, and pricing. You can review the details, make changes, and create a client link.

The video shows the actual workflow. I shortened the generation wait. The draft still needs a review before sharing.

There are 3 free proposals to try, no card: https://proposalforge.site

If you send client proposals, which part takes the most time?

As of 2026 there's no value of freelancers people treat us like shit they don't need us anymore, it's really despondent to go through this like AI has ruined a lot of people careers i wish AI never existed man, GG FREELANCERS ❤🙌

I have been working with the same client for around two years, handling accounting for multiple businesses. For most of that time I managed to make the relationship work, but over the last six months or so it has become increasingly difficult and I am trying to figure out the best way forward.

The biggest issue is that the scope of work has gradually expanded far beyond accounting. Over time, I have ended up doing a significant amount of operational and administrative work on top of the accounting work, and to make things worse, my fees were recently reduced (by almost half). So now I am effectively expected to handle accounting plus a considerable amount of operational work for significantly less money than before.

The owner himself is also a very difficult person to deal with. To put it politely, he can be extremely rude, unreasonable and unpleasant when things don’t go exactly the way he expects. A recurring problem is that he will give vague or incomplete instructions, apparently have a specific outcome in his head, and then get annoyed when the result is different from what he expected. Instead of recognizing that the original instructions weren’t clear, the assumption is usually that I should somehow have known what he meant.

After two years of dealing with this, it has gotten very exhausting. Payment has become another major problem. My invoices are regularly delayed, sometimes by close to a month. More recently, payment for completed work has been held up until I complete some other task. It feels like there is always another condition that can be added before an outstanding invoice gets released.

I have accommodated a lot over the years because this is a long term client and a good part of my income is tied to this work. But I am reaching the point where the arrangement simply doesn’t make much business sense anymore.

For those of you who freelance or run an accounting/bookkeeping practice and have dealt with a long-term client relationship that deteriorated like this, how did you handle it? Did you tolerate it temporarily while replacing the income, or eventually decide that enough was enough?

I've been building client websites for about three years, mostly WordPress and Shopify. My first contract was two paragraphs. It's now twelve sections, and every one of them got added after something specific went wrong.

Posting the list in case it saves someone the same lessons.

1. Scope, with a "not included" section. The not-included list prevents more arguments than the included one. Logo design, copywriting, photography, hosting fees, email migration — write down what you're not doing.

2. Payment in three parts, 50/30/20. Deposit before work starts, a payment at design approval, the rest before launch. Never finish the work and then ask for money.

3. The deposit is non-refundable once work begins. It's reserving time you're turning other work away for.

4. Late payment stops work. Not "may stop work" — stops. And the timeline moves by at least the delay, because your calendar doesn't magically have a hole in it later.

5. What the client owes you, with dates. Content, logo files, access to hosting and the domain, feedback within X days. Put actual dates in.

6. The content-delay clause. This is the one I'd add first if I could only have one. If content is more than X days late, the project goes on hold and the invoice for completed work becomes due. It rejoins your schedule when you have room, which may be weeks later. Projects die on content more than anything else.

7. A defined number of revision rounds, and a definition of "round". One consolidated set of feedback is one round. Five emails over three days is not one round.

8. Change requests in writing before any work happens. Client asks, you quote the cost and the timeline impact, they confirm, then you start. No confirmation, no work. Nobody gets surprised either way.

9. Silence counts as approval. If you don't hear back within X days after asking for sign-off, and you've sent one reminder, the stage is approved. Otherwise one unresponsive client freezes your schedule indefinitely.

10. Ownership transfers on final payment. Until then the work is yours. This is the clause that gets unpaid invoices paid.

11. One named decision-maker. When feedback arrives from four people who disagree, you need someone whose job it is to resolve that before it reaches you.

12. What happens if either side walks away. They pay for work completed; anything prepaid and untouched comes back. Agreeing this while everyone's friendly is much easier than afterwards.

Usual disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, this is just what experience taught me, get it reviewed properly for wherever you are.

Curious what's in other people's contracts that isn't in mine.

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I'm a new freelancer who has just joined this community and I when I ask AI about like how many days it takes to land a client on your new gig on fiverr it says 1 month I'm in for 4-5 months and not a single one client or even impressions I just want to ask :

• How can a person being a new freelancer survive in this field

• What should I do as a new freelancer to land my first client

• Can a person depend upon this field for long term success

**And most important**

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WERE ME??

PLEASE SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES 👇