Not all clients are created equal, and sometimes it's a good idea to do a quick risk assessment before commencing work.
If a new client calls up in a rush and you've never heard of them, what steps do you take before jumping straight into billable work?
The quickest and simplest way of performing a background check is to use the LinkedIn search feature:
- Check their details match the correspondence
- Is their company listed?
- Are their Job Titles the same?
- Do they have mutual connections
For a more in-depth check or to see if their company is legitimate, do a Google search:
- Do they turn up in the results?
- Do they have a webpage?
- Does the webpage look legitimate (not just thrown together)?
- Is the "Contact Us" address and/or phone number the same as the one they provided?
With this information you can then rank them from "Not a Risk" all the way up to "Huge Risk" (the kind with neon flashing lights and all) and decide whether or not to go ahead with the business deal.
