Freelancing is a world of freedom but with freedom comes a lot of trials and responsibilities. As a freelancer once in awhile or probably twice, clients will reject your work or terminate your contract whether it was a good or bad decision to have contracted you. A client may call of a contract for certain reasons which includes; finance indecisiveness on their part or not being happy or impressed with you or your work so far.
Whatever their reason, it is not your business finding out why but it is your business knowing what you get after your time has totally been wasted. As a freelancer you are contracted to a job and you pull through and deliver on it, the practice is that you already had collected a deposit from the client as a commitment and when the client calls of the contract early into the project you have to decide what to collect from your client.
Some freelancers have contracts and agreements in place which is generally called the termination, rejection, cancellation fee. This fee covers the cost of the disappointment of calling of a contract, time, expenses incurred which may include printing, shipping, web hosting costs etc.
In all of the aforementioned, you should take note that the termination/cancellation fee is an agreement, therefore as a freelancer you need a contract that binds such clients towards paying the stipulated fees or notice period, because in as much as you have said to be paid for cancellation the client might aswell refuse with the thought that you never said anything about cancellation or termination fees before hand.
Here is what to do if you find yourself in such a situation:
Before you start freelance work for any client, make out time to put down a contract to shield yourself, in case of rejection from clients or something else comes up. And as you outline your contract ensure you include your cancellation, termination terms. Also, try to make sure you include a deposit which is non refundable, that way the client knows what he or she is getting into and whether they can stick to and abide by these terms of practice.
There are times when you really have not started the project or done any work at all and the client has cancelled the project for a very valid reason, in this case it is logical and you are expected to give the client there money back in full unless otherwise agreed upon. You also want to ensure you have a good rapport with your clients as referrals and word of mouth can go along way and you never know your client may want to work with you again in future, so it is important to never burn your bridges!