One of our clients recently was looking for a redesign, and because of a limited budget, she went to a different designer who could cheaply do a fresh design and set up a Wordpress website for her. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out between her and that designer, who couldn’t come up with a design she was happy with. But the worst part about this was that the designer required full payment upfront with no refunds, meaning this author lost nearly $500 and has no new website.

If you hire a designer that requires full payment upfront, this could happen to you, too. We recommend you avoid these businesses altogether, but if you decide their work is good enough to take such a risk, make sure that you will be entitled to at least a partial refund if things don’t work out. There should be an official agreement of this, and you should have it in writing.

At DreamForge, we don’t require any kind of deposits–our clients only pay us when they have a finished product that they’re happy with. This might be considered risky on our part, because we take the chance that we’ll do hours and hours of work that we might never get paid for. However, after being in business for four years and creating websites for more than 50 clients, this has only happened to us once. We think of the way we conduct our business as an act of faith, on our part and on the part of the client. We do everything we possibly can to make our clients happy, and our clients work with us until they have a product they think is worth paying us for.

So, before you hand over your money, be careful and know what you’re entitled to get in return. A designer that requires a partial non-refundable deposit might make you hesitate but could still be worth it. One that requires a full non-refundable payment upfront should make you run in the opposite direction.