Twelve Questions That Stop a Cheap Brief Becoming an Expensive Lesson
Every underpriced job starts the same way. A friendly email, a rough deadline, a line about wanting 'something like that Apple site but for a fraction of the cost', and a number you typed before you knew what you were agreeing to.
Two weeks later you're on round four of amends, the person who hired you has gone quiet, and the logo you were handed turns out to be a JPEG lifted off a website that hasn't been updated since 2014.
You can't rescue every bad brief. You can spot most of them before you've committed to a price. That's the whole point of this checklist — twelve questions, a few walk-away triggers, and a reply you can drop into Outlook without sounding like a solicitor.
Why a questionnaire beats a hunch
Most freelancers quote from vibes. The brief looks tidy, the client seems pleasant, you're busy, so you send a figure and hope for the best. But a quote sets expectations the moment it lands, even with no contract in place, and revising upwards afterwards is one of the most awkward conversations in the trade.
A short set of questions does three jobs at once. It gets you the information you need to price properly. It signals that you run an actual process rather than a guess. And it quietly filters out the enquiries that were never going to work, because people who won't answer a two-minute email rarely become good clients.
The twelve questions
Four in each block. Keep them in the same order every time and they take about ninety seconds to read.
Money and scope
1. Do you have a budget range in mind, or would you like me to propose one? Leave the door open, but ask. If they refuse to name a figure twice, they're either shopping for the cheapest number or they haven't thought about it — both of which are your problem later.
2. Is this a fixed fee or a day-rate job, and who approves the spend? The second half matters more than the first. Someone has to be able to say yes without checking with a committee.
3. What do you picture as included — and what's definitely out? Vague scope is where margin goes to die. Get them to name three things they don't expect.
4. Are you supplying anything (photography, copy, print, brand assets), and is it ready now? Asset delays are the number one cause of a project that 'only' took three months.
People and power
5. Who has final sign-off? One name. If the answer is 'the team', you're about to design by consensus, which is the most expensive way to design anything.
6. Who else will see this, and at what stage? A stakeholder appearing at the eleventh hour is a scope change in disguise.
7. How many rounds of amends is normal for you? Then define what a round means in your quote — one consolidated set of comments, not a drip-feed over nine days.
8. Is there a procurement, legal or brand-team step after we agree? Big organisations have gates. Knowing about them early stops you chasing a purchase order in March.
Time and assets
9. When does this need to be live, and what's driving that date? A launch event is a real deadline. 'ASAP' is a feeling.
10. Who owns the fonts, photography and logos I'll be working with — can I see the licences? If they can't produce one, price in the risk or specify replacements.
11. What's your turnaround on feedback? Their answer sets your schedule, and it protects you when things slip.
12. Have you done a project like this before, and what went wrong last time? The single most useful question on the list. People are remarkably honest about this one.
A reply you can paste
Thanks for thinking of me — happy to look at this properly. Before I put a figure together I usually run through a short set of questions so the quote actually matches the job rather than guessing at it. Would you mind answering these?
- Do you have a budget range in mind, or would you like me to propose one?
- Is this fixed fee or day rate, and who signs it off?
- What's included in your head, and what's definitely out of scope?
- Are you supplying photography, copy or brand assets — and are they ready?
- Who gives final sign-off?
- Who else reviews the work, and when?
- How many rounds of amends do you usually work with?
- Is there a procurement or legal step after we agree terms?
- What's the live date, and what's driving it?
- Do you own the licences for the fonts and imagery involved?
- What's your typical turnaround on feedback?
- Have you run a project like this before — anything you'd want to avoid repeating?
Once I've got those I'll send a quote and a scope note within two working days.
That last line is doing quiet work. It promises a fast turnaround, which makes the questions feel like service rather than interrogation.
When to walk away
Not every flag is fatal, but a few together are. Walk away — politely, quickly — if any of these show up:
- No budget after two asks. They're collecting quotes to justify a number they've already picked, and it won't be yours.
- Sign-off is 'the whole team' with no named owner. You will be the referee in an internal argument you weren't hired for.
- They want to start before the paperwork. 'We'll sort the contract later' is a sentence that only ever benefits one side.
- The assets are unlicensed and they know it. Fonts in particular. It's not your job to absorb someone else's compliance problem.
- The deadline is fixed and nothing else is. A hard date with a soft brief is a guaranteed overrun.
Declining doesn't need a speech. Something like: Thanks for the detail — on reflection I don't think I'm the right fit for this one given the timeline and scope, but I hope it goes well and do come back to me on the next thing. Short, warm, no bridge burned.
Asking without sounding suspicious
Tone is everything here. The trick is to frame every question as a way of getting them a better answer, not a way of catching them out. 'So I can price it properly' does more work than any amount of professional-sounding language.
Ask once, accept the answer, and put anything unresolved into the quote as an explicit assumption: Priced on the basis of two amendment rounds, client-supplied imagery, and feedback within three working days. That single sentence is worth more than most contracts, because it turns a hidden risk into a visible one.
Twelve questions. Ninety seconds of their time. It won't make bad clients good, but it will stop you finding out the hard way.
