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As an upwork freelancer, am I at risk if I work directly with a client and not through the upwork platform in order to cut out the platform fee?
Apart from the fact that things could go south between you and the client, if I was a client and you agree to a contract outside the platform, I should be worried. It doesn’t portray you, the freelancer, well. This is what I mean, I would run from a freelancer if they suggested that we take the work outside upwork, it means they are doing something shady right up to something shady and if they’re willing to do this, they’re willing to do other things. I might be wrong but that just my own perspective. It makes absolutely no point to take work off Upwork because you want to skip the platform fee. If the platform wasn’t there, how would you get your client in the first place? Upwork saves freelancers tons and tons of time and aligns them with opportunities that would have never ever happened had you searched on your own.
It’s a red flag for clients, and some clients can even go as far as reporting your account.
I totally understand not wanting to pay fees. However, just like we don’t want to offer our services for free, how can we expect Upwork and other freelance platforms to operate for free. After all, they do all the work of connecting buyers and freelancers and makes business transaction safer for both parties. You could get scammed. Keeping it in Upwork means your interest is protected, same with the client’s. If any issues occur, you can go through Upwork resolution process to resolve it.