Blue Board is a useful tool. However, I’ve seen agencies listed on Blue Boar with 5 star marking who offered me 0.03 EUR/word (declined). As a rule, I do check Blue Board, but there is more; communication style, the fact that the agency askes to sign NDA prior to sharing any kind of text that could be confidential, the questions the PM asks before offering a project, the way they write (style, register, attitude, content), the reasonableness of the deadline, overall approach, etc... See more Blue Board is a useful tool. However, I’ve seen agencies listed on Blue Boar with 5 star marking who offered me 0.03 EUR/word (declined). As a rule, I do check Blue Board, but there is more; communication style, the fact that the agency askes to sign NDA prior to sharing any kind of text that could be confidential, the questions the PM asks before offering a project, the way they write (style, register, attitude, content), the reasonableness of the deadline, overall approach, etc. If I am not convinced, I politely ask for prepayment. Usually, my proposal is ignored. I can only recall one occasion when the PM agreed to prepay the project and it turned out to be an excellent collaboration. Of course, next project was based on my standard payment terms (30 days invoice). On the other hand, it also depends on the size of the project. If I have a good feeling, I could “risk” working on a 3000 word project (one day work), but would be reluctant to start a 30,000 word one. ▲ Collapse | |