Blog » Six questions to test integrity

In any business, but especially in web development you come across shady people who will try and chance you.

Most customers don’t understand the internet. So when someone requests a Facebook clone for R1000, you simply have to ask them if they know the amount of effort that goes into that project.

Here are some questions I would ask to distinguish ‘chancers’ from real clients.

1. What is your REAL budget? R1000 for a Facebook clone is laughable — you won’t get something viable for that price. Can you do something about it? I never follow up with them if they can’t answer a question. Communication is huge. If they argue, they aren’t worth it. If they seem genuine, then you start nailing down constraints and you tell them to change the price they are willing to accept bids on. Always I let them know what they will be paying with me once I find out what they need.
2. If you had the choice, would you rather have a project that worked perfectly for your customers, or something that had a lot of bugs and you were able to get cheaply? (this question tells me if they care about their customers… and if they don’t they typically don’t care about anyone)
3. How many successful projects have you completed total?
4. How will we know this project has been completed to your satisfaction?
5. Are you willing to do some back and forth communication to ensure this is going to be a great success?
6. If you had to put this on a scale of 1-10, 10 being really high quality and 1 being very low cost — where is your project?