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5 Golden Rules When Contracting
| 4.20.2006
I currently have a full time gig but occasionally, I do a little moonlighting when the right project comes along. It helps me pay for "toys", software and travel. These days, I'm pretty flat out at work which means a potential side job has to pass a few tests if I'm going to take it on. First, it has to pay well. No longer do I give up my free time for a $500 project. $2k is my starting rate for any project. If it doesn't have the right budget, I'd rather rest, work on my own stuff or even paint a wall. Second, it has to be visually interesting. It won't be long enough if I have to do another boring startup site again. Third, it has to have an aggressive schedule. I hate projects that drag on because of no driving deadline or too much consensus. It's sort of like a covert mission - get in, get out, no one gets hurt and you're home in time to kiss your kids goodnight.
If you follow the 5 golden rules of contracting, you'll stay clear of some major pitfalls.
1. Get money up front - No matter how tempting a project or budget sounds, don't start without a deposit up front (at least 1/3). I was just discussing this same point with my friend Michele the other day. If someone can't or won't give you some money up front to get started, then that can only mean one of 3 things.
1. They don't have the money
2. They don't want to really pay you in the first place
3. They don't trust you for some reason
In any case, you don't want to work for them, so just move on. Time is money so learn when to cut bait and go for the next gig.
2. Get a good budget - They're is nothing wrong with coming in at a lower price to get the job but don't undercut yourself. You might be happy that you got the first gig but you've just "branded" yourself as a low cost solution to the client and they're going to expect the same low prices for future projects. Also, it's the same amount of work to do a $500 one page e-newsletter as it is a $2,000 small website, so determine the right price and either go for it or move on. One of my first contract clients years ago said "We have several of these projects coming up so give us a really good deal on the first one and the rest of the projects are all yours." Even in my naive years, I had enough foresight to say "Pay me full price for the first 5 projects and I'll do the sixth and seventh for free!" Needless to say that I never heard from them again. They didn't have any money and all it took was a little talking to expose their true intentions.
3. Get a signed contract - Don't forget to outline the terms of what you're going to be delivering and the payment schedule. Scope creep is the number one reason for having this in place. I actually turned down a big $$ job the other day because the person kept "forgetting" to sign my contract and make agree to give a deposit. My personal opinion is that they intended to "judge" the work and then decide how much they wanted to pay for it...I but bait and ran ran ran as fast as I could.
4. Don't do anything for free - Never do any work for free. It's not that I want you to be a bad person...it just clouds communications all around. Nothing motivates good communication, initiative and schedule like money. I remember doing some wedding invites for a friend. The lucky couple liked it enough but their parents just didn't get it. So they would drag their heals, make stupid changes and just bitch about everything. Now if they were paying money to have these done, you can bet they would be much more articulate with their feedback and wouldn't want to miss any deadlines for fear or being charged extra.
5. Don't do anything for family or close friends - I break this rule every once in a while. Sometimes it pays off and other times it's a train wreck. I had (emphasis on "HAD") a friend who recovered from this sickness and wrote a book about the journey to recovery. He wanted to market the book through an online channel in a grassroots fashion. A blog was the obvious brand-on solution. Would have felt more like a discussion group with a great forum for people with the same disease to share stories and ideas. This would have been in contrast to some slick site that looks like it's just trying to make money off the book. Also, they wanted this ASAP and a blog is much easier to set up. The thing that killed the project for me was that they wanted a full site in a Dr. Phil look and feel. Needless to say, I cut bait pretty quickly.
Happy contracting!
posted at 11:45 PM
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4 Comments:
I liked this one very much! One question, I need a little help with my blog. Do you think you could help me out? Well, thought I'd give it a shot. Good job son.
Useful post, Scout, thanks.
Great article - never know that you can write that well. Keep it up
hey man,
I have to say I am not sure I am happy about you knocking ***** like that (not that I don't understand how difficult he can be to work with), maybe I am having a PMS moment... I just hope you did not send this to him or anyone who knows him. He would be really upset and I can't imagine that your goal would be to upset him. Although - I have to say - I thought you two "made-up".
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